Intergovernmental transfers in federations Contents: Foreword by Richard Bird 1 Introduction to the volume Serdar Yilmaz and Farah Zahir Part I: Conceptual issues 2. The architecture of intergovernmental transfers: principles and practice in low and middle income countries Roy W. Bahl Jr 3. Issues in intergovernmental fiscal transfers: public finance and political economy considerations Serdar Yilmaz and Farah Zahir 4. The practice of fiscal equalization: a political economy clarification Bernard Dafflon and François Vaillancourt Part II: Intergovernmental transfers in mature federations 5. The German model of addressing vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalances Paul B. Spahn 6. The United States grant system Howard A. Chernick 7. Federal finance arrangements in Canada: the challenges of fiscal imbalance and natural resource rents Marcelin Joanis and Fran.ois Vaillancourt 8. Revenue and expenditure needs equalization: the Swiss answer Bernard Dafflon 9. Intergovernmental fiscal relations in Australia Bob Searle 10. The economic impacts of horizontal fiscal equalization as practised in Australia Jonathan Coppel Part III: Intergovernmental transfers in evolving federations 11. Intergovernmental fiscal transfers and performance grants in Brazil Deborah L. Wetzel and Lorena Viñuela 12. Intergovernmental fiscal transfer system in Argentina: historical evolution current performance and reform options to promote efficiency equity and transparency Marco Larizza and Julian Folgar 13. Evolving role of the finance commissions in India in the last 25 years Farah Zahir 14. Emerging trends in fiscal transfer systems in selected federations: implications for India Jorge Martinez Vazquez Part IV: Intergovernmental transfers in unitary federations 15. Intergovernmental fiscal transfers in Kenya: the evolution of revenue sharing under new devolution in a quasi federal system Jamie Boex and Paul Smoke 16. Reforming vertical programmes: the case of South African local government David Savage Index. In a multi level government system institutional legacy and the assignment of roles and responsibilities between the federal and the subnational governments create imbalances. These imbalances in economic terms are a result of a mismatch between revenue raising capacity and the spending responsibilities of the different levels of the government. Intergovernmental Transfers in Federations presents a synthesis of recent international experience of large federations in addressing the most fundamental issues of horizontal and vertical imbalances through the prism of intergovernmental transfers. It compares mature federal systems and the maturing federations of the world. Contributors delve into the various aspects of policy making as well as policy choices in selecting an efficiency path for a meaningful fiscal devolution aimed at integrating performance and incentives to reach an expenditure mix that facilitates better service delivery. Chapters include empirical theoretical and methodological contributions as well as case studies that illustrate important policy or methodological lessons for future work. This collection is essential reading for researchers practitioners policy makers and students wishing to understand the choices made by different countries in response to the overarching principles of needs equity and efficiency for sharing of resources