Volatile urbanism and the fiscal federalism failure: Why intergovernmental transfer systems are calibrated for a world that no longer exists

Zaheer Allam, Rushaa Badaloo, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, School of Architecture, Design and Planning, The University of Queensland, Doctoral School, University of Technology

Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

Published online on June 06, 2026

Abstract

Local Economy, Volume 40, Issue 4, Page 517-523, August 2026.
Intergovernmental fiscal transfer systems remain largely calibrated to cyclical shocks, stable revenue bases, and predictable spatial distributions of economic activity. This Policy Insight argues that those assumptions are increasingly misaligned with ...