This book is based upon a comparative public administration research project, initiated by the Hertie School of Governance (Germany) and the Bertelsmann Foundation (Germany) and supported by a network of researchers from many EU countries. It analyzes both the regimes and the practices of local fiscal regulation in 21 European countries. The book brings together key findings of this research project. The regulatory discussion is not limited to the prominent issue of fiscal rules but focuses on every component of regulation. Beyond this, the book covers affiliated topics such as the impact of regulation for local governments, evolution of regulation, administrative costs and crisis prevention. The various book chapters throughout provide a broad picture of local public finance regulation in theory and in practice, using different theoretical and national lenses for the analysis. Furthermore, the authors investigate the effects of budgetary constraints and higher-level regulatory efforts on local governments and on democracy and public services in every European country. This book fills a gap with respect to the lack of discussion on local government finance from an international, comparative perspective and, in particular, the regulation of local public finance. With its mix of authors, this book will be useful for practitioners as well as for scholars and for theory-driven research.

René Geissler is Professor of Public Management at the Technical University of Applied Sciences in Wildau, Germany. Until fall 2020 he was working for Bertelsmann Stiftung as a Senior Expert in Public Finance designing and implementing various research projects. His research focuses particularly on monitoring fiscal trends by public statistics, financial management and the regulation of local public finance. He is author of manifold publications and regularly serves as an expert in media. Gerhard Hammerschmid is Professor of public and financial management at the Hertie School, Berlin (Germany) and the director of the "Center for Digital Governance" at the Hertie School. His research focuses on public management, public administration reform, comparative public administration, performance management, public sector innovation, public sector leadership, public service motivation, organization theory and new institutionalism. He serves as an editorial board member and reviewer for various renowned international journals. Christian Raffer is a Research Associate at the German Institute of Urban Affairs. His research focuses on public economics and public management, as well as fiscal policy, firm growth, and empirical methods. Christian Raffer also works as a lecturer for economics at the Berlin School of Economics and Law.