Building robust finances : how to assess and drive financial resilience at the Swiss local government level?

In recent years, the world has faced an increasing array of global and regional crises. These events have significant repercussions on public finances, often resulting in reduced revenues and increased expenditures for national and local governments. Research on the financial resilience of local governments (LGs) shows that financial resilience is in fact a multidimensional concept (Barbera et al., 2017). It is not merely a matter of building financial buffers, but also includes non-financial dimensions. Despite increasing research interest, financial resilience is still modelled abstractly and is therefore not widely used in public financial management practice. This paper therefore examines the factors that contribute to financial resilience of LGs, focusing on Switzerland, whose institutional context provides a perfect opportunity for such an examination due to its LGs' financial self-determination. The study collected perspectives from Swiss LG CFOs, oversight authorities, and public sector consultants through semi-structured interviews. A total of 11 CFOs, 6 external consultants, and 2 cantonal oversight authorities were interviewed. This qualitative approach allows identify the strategies, instruments and practices employed by LGs to manage or develop their financial resilience.