TY  - CHAP
U1  - Buchbeitrag
A1  - Zabler, Steffen
ED  - Bergström, Tomas
ED  - Franzke, Jochen
ED  - Kuhlmann, Sabine
ED  - Wayenberg, Ellen
T1  - New Ways of Limiting Local Government Debt: An Empirical Assessment of the German Case
T2  - The Future of Local Self-Government: European Trends in Autonomy, Innovations and Central-Local Relations
N2  - Severe fiscal pressure experienced by some German municipalities has led to a shift in the way municipalities are controlled by the responsible state governments. Instead of purely relying on a system of approving budgets and borrowing, some states have established debt relief programmes which combine grants and sanctions, or even sent austerity commis-sioners who take over responsibilities of councils and mayors. Whether these are deemed proportionate and legitimate interventions into the constitutionally guaranteed administra-tive autonomy of the local level depends heavily on their success in limiting local government debt. Based on an innovative synthetic control approach, this paper undertakes an empirical assessment of a recent debt relief programme in North Rhine-Westphalia and the deploy-ment of an austerity commissioner, revealing that both instruments to some degree positive-ly impacted upon local government debt, as compared to non-intervention. Nevertheless, it finds the effect is limited in substantial terms.
Y1  - 2021
UR  - https://www.springerprofessional.de/new-ways-of-limiting-local-government-debt-an-empirical-assessme/18762514
SN  - 978-3-030-56058-4
SB  - 978-3-030-56058-4
SN  - e-book: 978-3-030-56059-1
SB  - e-book: 978-3-030-56059-1
SP  - 243
EP  - 255
PB  - Palgrave Macmillan
CY  - Cham
ER  -