This two-volume work, edited by Ahmad (Center for Development Research, U. of Bonn, Germany) and Brosio (public finance and local government, U. of Turin, Italy), collects papers from the
existing scholarly literature on contemporary issues of fiscal federalism and fiscal decentralization around the world. The 23 papers collected in the first volume focus on methodological and
institutional issues, including advances in theorizing fiscal federalism and decentralization from the contributions of John Stuart Mill to contemporary government competition theory;
population mobility and strategic behavior by local governments in such areas as tax competition and welfare competition; and comparative institutional mechanisms, including intergovernmental
contracts, bargaining between local governments and the center, and executive federalism. The attention shifts in the second volume's 27 papers to policy related questions and experiences. Key
themes of this volume include decentralized policies and governance, financing and accountability, taxation of natural resources, governance considerations, macro-fiscal management and the
political economy of subnational debt, and the environment and natural disasters. Annotation 穢2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
