Local Government Finance: Trends and Questions

Abstract

Section 1 of this paper suggests that there is little evidence of regional let alone world-wide trends in local finances although trends within particular countries certainly exist. Section 2 then argues that the path-dependent and context-specific nature of country experiences implies that one must be very careful both in categorizing the local finance systems found in different countries and in making cross-country empirical studies of local finances. Finally, Section 3 suggests that in analyzing and comparing country experiences it is important to be clear about the different (implicit or explicit) normative models to be found in the literature and exemplified in practice in different countries.

Keywords: Local Finance, International Comparisons, Models of Local Finance