Purpose: The objective of the study is to determine if an over-borrowing bias emerges when the state fiscal base is shared by multiple general-purpose and special-purpose jurisdictions serving different groups of citizens. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses panel data from all 50...

The Great Recession that started in late 2007 is threatening to alter the local government landscape in the U.S. With the steep decline in property and sales taxes, a number of state governments are now reviewing how their local government systems can be re-structured to improve service...

This study uses multiple measures of fragmentation and decentralization to assess the effects of these conditions on total local spending in 126 metropolitan regions and 538 counties in the same regions in 2002. The measures are derived from a recognized scheme that distinguishes among total,...