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Sharing the blame? Local electoral accountability and centralized school finance in California

Joanis, Marcelin - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Facultat … - 2009

While electoral accountability should be stronger when responsibilities are clearly assigned to one political office, the involvement of higher tiers of government is often associated with policies specifically designed to improve local accountability. This paper investigates the impact of...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008578179

Dress-up contest: a dark side of fiscal decentralization

Wang, Ruixin; Wang, Wendun - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Facultat … - 2013

A `dress-up contest' is a competition for the best public image, and fiscal decentralisation can lead to such contests between local governments. In this paper we model the dress-up contest and investigate how it a effects social welfare. We show that yardstick competition (due to fiscal...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010698150

Political corruption and voter turnout: mobilization or disaffection?

Costas-Pérez, Elena - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Facultat … - 2014

Corruption may affect voter turnout either by mobilizing citizens to go to the polls or by promoting voter disaffection. Using Spanish local and survey data, we study whether these effects depend on partisan leanings or the timing of scandals. Our results show that repeated episodes of...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010796121

Does corruption erode trust in government? Evidence from a recent surge of local scandals in Spain

Solé-Ollé, Albert; Sorribas-Navarro, Pilar - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Facultat … - 2014

We examine whether a corruption scandal in which the incumbent is implicated undermines trust in local government. We use a novel dataset containing information on local corruption scandals reported in Spain during the period 1999-2009, and data on the level of trust expressed in local...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010796122

Is there an election cycle in public employment? Separating time effects from election year effects

Dahlberg, Matz; Mörk, Eva - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Facultat … - 2011

Do governments increase public employment in election years? This paper answers this question by using data from Sweden … time. These facts make it possible for us to separate an election effect from other time effects. Our results indicate that … there is a statistically significant election year effect in local public employment, a production factor that is highly …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008927004

Plurality versus proportional electoral rule: which is most representative of voters?

Piolatto, Amedeo - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Facultat … - 2009

This study compares the representativeness of voters in the proportional electoral system with the situation under plurality rule. Representativeness is commonly measured by comparing parties’ received votes with their shares of seats in the Parliament; this implies that proportional rule...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008579093

The political economy of infrastructure construction: The Spanish “Parliamentary Roads” (1880-1914)

Curto-Grau, Marta; Herranz-Loncán, Alfonso; … - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Facultat … - 2010

This paper examines the extent to which the public allocation of road investment was influenced by political and electoral goals during the Spanish Restoration (1874-1923). More precisely, we seek to identify those provinces that were favoured with higher road construction expenditure and...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008685309

Corruption scandals, press reporting, and accountability. Evidence from Spanish mayors

Costas-Pérez, Elena; Solé-Ollé, Albert; … - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Facultat … - 2011

We analyse the effects of local corruption on electoral outcomes with Spanish data. Based upon press reports published between 1996 and 2009, we are able to construct a novel database on corruption scandals and news related to bribe-taking in exchange for amendments to land use plans. Our data...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009024622

Fiscal decentralisation, private school funding, and students’ achievements. A tale from two roman catholic countries

Turati, Gilberto; Montolio, Daniel; Piacenza, Massimiliano - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Facultat … - 2011

The objective of the paper is to study the disciplining role of both market forces and regional governments own resources in the provision of educational services. The historical evolution of school regulation in Italy and Spain (in particular regarding the funding of private schools run by...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009646398

The effect of decentralization on educational outcomes: real autonomy matters!

Salinas, Paula - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Facultat … - 2014

This paper uses cross-national data to examine the effects of different dimensions of decentralization on the efficiency of educational policies in OECD countries. The results show that the autonomy of subnational governments, both on the expenditure and revenue sides of their activities, is...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010796115