Mikel Erkoreka, former director of the Ituna Center for Basque Economic Agreement and Fiscal Federalism Studies, has edited the present volume “Fiscal Federalism and Equalisation Transfers, Balancing Regional Autonomy and Solidarity”, published by Brill | Nijhoff publishers. 

The main aim of this book is to study the state of the question of territorial inequalities, intergovernmental transfers and fiscal equalisation systems in federal or decentralised countries after the two deep crises of 2008 and 2020.

This book places the spotlight on the effects, challenges and risks provoked by territorial fiscal inequalities in federal systems, and on the diversity of mechanisms and instruments created by the different federations in confronting or mitigating its adverse consequences.

How did both crises affect within the framework of intergovernmental financial transfers and in the equalisation systems of the federal/ decentralised countries? What is the current situation and the challenges for the future? What debates and tensions has the issue of territorial inequality provoked?

In this respect, the book aims to serve as a reference on the present and future of fiscal equalisation systems in federal countries.

The work counted with the participation of leading authors and research institutions on federalism from all over the world, thanks to the network of the International Association of Centers for Federal Studies (IACFS). The IACFS is an association of institutions with interests in independent research and publication about political, constitutional, legal, administrative, fiscal, economic, social, cultural, historical and philosophical issues relevant to political systems which have federal features.

One of the strengths of this book is its multidisciplinary approach to the subject. As reflected in this introduction, the question of fiscal equalisation has a multidimensional character: fiscal, financial, political, legal and institutional, amongst others. The union of experts from different disciplines (especially economists, lawyers and political scientists), offers a certainly novel approach to this book, and allows to understand the complexity of the topic from a broad and transversal approach.

In this sense, some chapters approach the issue from a more legal perspective others, more political, and others, more financial. In this way, the full reading of the book provides a comprehensive view on the debates generated by fiscal territorial inequalities and equalisation policies both in the different federal or decentralised systems analysed, as well as in the different fields of research on federalism.

Download the full work here.