01952cas a2200253 a 4500 AALejournalIMF013391 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781475578157 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Eyraud, Luc. Too Small to Fail? : Subnational Spending Pressures in Europe / Luc Eyraud, Marialuz Moreno Badia. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2013. 1 online resource (36 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students The purpose of this paper is to assess whether expenditure decentralization has contributed to weakening fiscal performance in Europe. Using a panel of EU15 countries for the period 1995-2011, we estimate three econometric models and ask the following questions: (1) does the form of spending decentralization affect the general government fiscal balance?; (2) is there evidence of spending duplication?; and (3) are soft budget constraints prevalent at the subnational level in Europe? Our results indicate that current decentralization models may have some shortcomings and efforts to achieve fiscal consolidation would require improvements in three areas: better matching subnational spending and revenues; reshaping some expenditure assignments to reduce overlap; and improving the effectiveness of institutional arrangements at the subnational level. Mode of access: Internet Moreno Badia, Marialuz. IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2013/046 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2013/046/001.2013.issue-046-en.xml IMF e-Library