Acceso usuarios
Roberto Perotti, Alberto Alesina
This paper studies the trends in the debt of Spain's territorial governments over the past ten years. It uses as its framework of analysis the reasons adduced bythe theory of fiscal federalism to set limits on the growth of non-central governments, the enforcement of these limts in Spain and their possible influence on current debt levels.By discusing the availabel theoretical and empirical literature, this paper argues thatbudget procedures and budget institutions do influence budget outcomes. Budget institutions include both procedural rules and balanced budget laws. We criticallyassess theoretical contributions in this area and suggest several open and uresolved issues. We also examine the empirical evidence drawn from studies on samplesof OECD countries, Latin American countries and US states.
