The 2008 financial crisis and the health crisis of 2020, together with globalisation or technological changes, contributed to widen the territorial inequality gaps in most countries. The socioeconomic, fiscal and political implications of this increase in territorial disparities have become into a source of concern and tension for many federal and decentralized countries.
In order to alleviate problems arising from territorial inequalities and facilitate internal cohesion, mechanisms of fiscal equalization are common in the majority of federal and decentralized countries, although their configuration, scope and objectives vary in each case. One of the main objectives of these mechanisms is ensuring a minimum level of local public service provision despite large disparities on fiscal capacities. However, this is not a purely fiscal and financial issue. It has political and legal implications, which affect the essence and principles of federal systems. Therefore, fiscal equalization tools have also an impact on the political and institutional dynamics and intergovernmental relations of federations.
The aim of this book is to study the state of the art of fiscal equalization systems in federal and decentralized countries: goals, formulas, results and limits evidenced during the 2008 and 2020 crises, recent reforms, current problems and future challenges, etc. We invite authors to submit proposals on these topics, from a case-study perspective.
Possible questions to be addressed:
- Which are the goals and principles of the fiscal equalization system in the country?
- Are targeted equalization objectives achieved? If not, why?
- Has fiscal equalization been reformed because of recent crises? In which direction?
- Which are the main challenges fiscal equalization will need to address in the near future?
- Which are implications of fiscal equalization on regional disparities? Is regional policy integrated in the intergovernmental fiscal relations framework? Or is it kept separately?
- The equity-efficiency trade-off: where is the optimal equilibrium between solidarity and autonomy? The boundaries of tax competition and harmonization.
- The political economy of fiscal equalization: aligning the policy agenda of federal/central government, net recipient and net contributor jurisdictions.
General information about the publication
Timeline:
- Deadline for sending proposals: 15 January 2023.
- Maximum 500 words. Proposals should be submitted to Mikel Erkoreka (ituna@ehu.eus).
- Deadline for acceptance of proposals: 31 January 2023.
- Deadline for submitting the final manuscript: 15 September 2023.
Editorial:
The book will be published in the “Studies in Territorial and Cultural Diversity Governance” collection in Brill publishing house.
Editor:
- Mikel Erkoreka (Ituna Center for Basque Economic Agreement and Fiscal Federalism Studies: ituna.eus)
Instruction for authors:
Manuscripts must be in English. We will send the instructions for authors later. However, book chapters will follow the standard instructions and style guidelines of Brill publishing house.