City size and the demand for local public goods

Buettner, Thiess; Holm‐Hadulla, Fédéric

doi:10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2012.10.003

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Scaling up organizations operating under economies of size may result in lower spending, higher service levels (increase in quality or quantity), or both. If public services become cheaper to produce, the optimal service level rises (Buettner and Holm‐Hadulla, ). Moreover, bureaucrats might be reluctant to reduce spending (Niskanen, ).…”

Section: Theory and Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Local Government Amalgamation on Public Spending, Taxation, and Service Levels: Evidence From 15 Years of Municipal Consolidation

Allers

Geertsema

2016

Journal of Regional Science

153

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We study how municipal amalgamation affects local government spending, taxation, and service provision in the Netherlands. Employing different models, different control groups, and a number of robustness tests, we find no significant effect on aggregate spending or taxation, although spending on administration is reduced. We explore whether this finding might hide amalgamation effects working in opposite directions for different types of municipalities (e.g., small versus large, or homogeneous versus heterogeneous), cancelling each other out. This does not seem to be the case. We also investigate whether amalgamation leads to better public services instead of lower spending, but find no evidence.

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Section: Theory and Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Local Government Amalgamation on Public Spending, Taxation, and Service Levels: Evidence From 15 Years of Municipal Consolidation

Allers

Geertsema

2016

Journal of Regional Science

153

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“…Finally, the profits that firms are able to obtain can be written as a function of the fixed costs and the plant productivity index, because the last two variables determine the firm's size. Combining equations (13) to (16) and (21) yields…”

Section: An Example Of Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More specifically, for a predetermined stock of infrastructure and an interest rate given by the international market, free entry condition (16) for the manufacturing sector along with (36) pins down the equilibrium wage rate and the stock of private capital. Output prices and plant-productivity thresholds are given by (18) and (21), respectively.…”

Section: Equilibriummentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using data obtained from RAIS, Figure 3 shows its evolution across the economy sectors: the left panel looks at the absolute numbers, whereas the right one gives the sectoral shares. 16 The left panel shows that the total number 15 In principle, we could access data for all the variables from 1985. However, before 1995 the numbers look odd.…”

Section: Public Infrastructure and Structural Transformation In A Devmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, the sectoral shares supplied by this alternative source of data are very different from the ones given by IBGE before 1995; however, the numbers are similar after that date. 16 RAIS collects information only about the formal economy. Information on workers in the informal sector could be also obtained from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD).…”

Section: Public Infrastructure and Structural Transformation In A Devmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Public Infrastructure and Structural Transformation

Sebastián

Steinbuks

2017

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This study argues that public infrastructure is an important though previously neglected driving mechanism of the structural transformation process. To assess its significance quantitatively, this study first develops a multisector neoclassical growth model with heterogeneous firms, where public infrastructure contributes to firms' production and mitigates the barriers to firms' entry. The model is calibrated using data from Brazil, a country that has significantly expanded its infrastructure in recent decades, yet remains in deep need of further infrastructure improvements. The accumulation of infrastructure accelerates the structural transformation through generating higher returns and lowering entry costs in sectors with greater public capital intensity. In the simulations, public capital formation explains about 15 percent of the process. The paper also shows the effects of different barriers to public capital formation on the structural transformation and GDP per capita.

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Net Fiscal Flows and the Size of Cities

Zimmermann

2016

RuR

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Which regions contribute most to national growth? Do large cities ‘need’ more expenditure per capita? The relation between these two questions is the subject of a current German discussion, but it is of importance for other countries as well. What precisely is the issue? The substantial German fiscal equalization systems between states (Länder) and between communities assign estimates of higher expenditure need per capita to larger cities. This paper argues that this is justified, because, following the arguments of new regional economics, the modern agglomerations are of crucial importance for national growth. To maintain this role they have to be able to keep or receive enough public finance. To assess this, total public flows out of and into regions have to be taken into account. The relevant analysis shows that their contribution to upperlevel (federal and Länder) finances is far above average, but that they receive relatively little from federal and Länder spending; consequently they experience large net fiscal outflows. The use of the abovementioned progressive scale of expenditure need in the equalization systems reduces this fiscal siphoning-off, at least to some extent.

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City size and the demand for local public goods

Cited by 17 publications

References 19 publications

The Effects of Local Government Amalgamation on Public Spending, Taxation, and Service Levels: Evidence From 15 Years of Municipal Consolidation

The Effects of Local Government Amalgamation on Public Spending, Taxation, and Service Levels: Evidence From 15 Years of Municipal Consolidation

Public Infrastructure and Structural Transformation

Net Fiscal Flows and the Size of Cities

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