Research on fiscal federalism has accelerated in recent years and produced important results. Nevertheless, many fundamental questions on the (lacking) functionality of certain federal structures are still unresolved. At the same time the reform or construction of federal structures in Germany, Europe and elsewhere is on its way. Hence, an academic analysis of the open questions both with respect to basic research and with respect to ongoing policy developments appears to be necessary and helpful. With this background, the project is devoted to the training of Ph.D. students which are supported through a three-year scholarship and are qualified as fiscal federalism post-docs.