Local Public, Fiscal and Financial Governance An International Perspective

This book provides a comprehensive treatment of traditional as well as newer topics in local public, fiscal and financial management principles and practices. It covers traditional topics of local public management, local revenue administration with special emphasis on property tax administration, local budgeting and accounting, and methods of capital finance. Newer topics covered include political economy of local government, fiscal rules for local fiscal discipline, local government integrity and performance accountability, and municipal mergers and inter-municipal cooperation based upon relative importance and political, fiscal and administrative autonomy of local governments. The treatment is non-technical and suitable for a wide variety of audiences including scholars, instructors, students, policy advisors, and practitioners.

Part I Introduction and Overview

1. Introduction

Part II Local Public, Fiscal and Financial Management

2. Local Tax Administration

3. The Practice of Real Property Taxation in the World

4. Municipal Budgeting and Accounting

5. Local Fiscal Discipline

Part III Local Government Integrity and Performance Accountability

6. Local Public Infrastructure and Corruption

7. Measuring and Monitoring Local Government Performance

Part IV Local Government Reform Imperatives

8. Structural Reform: Municipal Mergers

9. Intermunicipal Cooperation

10. Political Economy of Local Government Reform

Brian Dollery is Professor of Economics in the UNE School of Business and Director of the UNE Centre for Local Government at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia. He has previously worked at Yokohama National University, Rhodes University and the University of South Africa. Recent books include Perspectives on Australian Local Government Reform (2015), Funding the Future: Financial Sustainability and Infrastructure Finance in Australian Local Government (2013), Councils in Cooperation: Shared Services and Australian Local Government (2012), Local Government Reform: A Comparative Analysis of Advanced Anglo-American Countries (2008), The Theory and Practice of Local Government Reform (2008), Reform and Leadership in the Public Sector (2007) and Australian Local Government Economics (2006). Over the past two decades, Brian has closely worked with local government across all Australian states, largely in the area of municipal mergers, shared services, financial sustainability and urban water.

Harry Kitchen is Professor Emeritus in the Economics Department at Trent University, Canada. Over the past twenty years, he has completed more than 100 articles, reports, studies, and books on issues relating to local government expenditures, finance, structure and governance in Canada. In addition, he has served as a consultant or advisor for a number of municipal and provincial governments in Canada and the federal government, and has worked on projects in Russia and China. In 2013, he was awarded a Queens Diamond Jubilee medal for policy analysis and research contributions to municipal finance, structure and governance in Canada. In 2017, he was appointed visiting scholar at the Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.

Melville McMillan is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Economics and a Fellow of the Institute of Public Economics at the University of Alberta, Canada.  McMillan’s research and teaching interests are in public economics, particularly urban and local economics, fiscal federalism, and the demand/supply of public goods and services. He has published in these areas and has advised governments and organizations nationally and internationally (e.g., the World Bank).  Although “retired,” McMillan remains actively involved in academic and policy matters.