Purpose: Over the past 25 years, direct cash transfers (often abbreviated as direct benefit transfer, DBT) to the poorer section of the society are gaining popularity over explicit subsidization of prices of essential commodities. One of the main arguments in favor of DBT is that it will cost...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate conditions under which voters’ comparison of relative performance between adjacent jurisdictions can help reduce rent-seeking by politicians. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical model was developed to examine the effectiveness...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate conditions under which voters’ comparison of relative performance between adjacent jurisdictions can help reduce rent‐seeking by politicians. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical model was developed to examine the effectiveness...

We analyze the role of political parties in the provision of public goods within a federal economy. The public goods are federally funded but locally produced (with costly local revenues), and have interjurisdictional spillover effects. The direction and magnitude of fund flow, which ultimately...