The growth of interest in fiscal decentralization has meant that there has been something of a rush to enshrine this in policy - The World Bank has reported that about 70 countries see this as a major part of their development strategy. This book critically examines the case for decentralization. This collection of contributions comes from a worldwide team of experts, including Albert Breton, Piero Giarda and Anwar Shah. After analysing fiscal decentralization in general, the book goes on to look at intriguing case studies of various regions around the world including: The European Union; Hungary and Slovakia; Russia and China; and Asia and Africa. This comprehensive guide to fiscal decentralization should be of great interest to academics, researchers and policy makers.