“…Various authors have already stressed the omitted-variable and endogeneity problems that plague the estimation of the effects of intergovernmental transfers (e.g., Knight, 2002) and, indeed, several studies employ quasi-experimental methods for precisely this purpose (see Gordon, 2004;Dahlberg et al, 2008;Lundqvist, Dahlberg, and Mörk, 2014;Litschig and Morrison, 2013). In some of these papers the identification strategy exploits the exogenous variation created by a reform in the transfer formula (see Gordon, 2004 andCascio, Gordon, andReber, 2013), others rely on a 'regression discontinuity design' that exploits jumps or kinks at specific population thresholds (e.g., Dahlberg et al, 2008;Lundqvist, Dahlberg, and Mörk, 2014;and Litschig and Morrison, 2013). Our identification strategy in this papers combines the advantages of these two approaches.…”