ABSTRACT
Using the USA, China, and India as examples, this article explains how urban fiscal crises are largely shaped by the different assemblages of administrative authorities, functional responsibilities, and fiscal autonomy of municipal governments as they are embedded in intergovernmental relations. Municipal governments in China, India, and the USA vary greatly in their administrative authority given by upper-level governments, fiscal resources they are able to generate, and the kind of services they are mandated to provide. This varying mix of resources, authority, and responsibility has produced a multitude of urban fiscal crises with distinctive causes and consequences.
