Financing local government in the twenty-first century

This chapter examines local government revenues in EU member countries for the first 15 years of the twenty-first century. After an outline of the economics of local government and the general principles of revenue assignment, the main local government revenue sources are described. The data confirm the wide variation in the funding of local governments throughout the EU and the changing patterns in local government revenue during the 2000–2014 period, arising partly from policy differences in governments’ responses to the extraordinary events of the time, both before and after the financial crisis and the 2008–2009 Great Recession.