Devolution, Fiscal Federalism, and Changing Patterns of Municipal Revenues: The Mismatch between Theory and Reality

Theories of fiscal federalism, such as those propounded by Musgrave, Tiebout, and Brennan and Buchanan, prescribe assignment of revenue sources among federal, state, and local governments. In this article, we demonstrate that the recent diversification of municipal revenue sources in response to devolutionary forces does not follow the expectations of the fiscal federalism theories. Our analysis suggests that the use of an institutional approach to the study of fiscal federalism would help to reduce the mismatch between theory and reality.