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Local Political Budget Cycles in a Federation: Evidence from West German Cities
Furdas, Marina; Homolkova, Katerina; Kis-Katos, Krisztina - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) - 2015
This paper analyzes the occurrence of political budget cycles in 604 West German cities between 1975 and 2007. Due to the idiosyncratic timing of state and local elections, the budgetary changes before elections at two tiers of the federalist government can be separately estimated and can also...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011156469
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Fiscal Decentralization and Development: How Crucial is Local Politics?
Pal, Sarmistha; Roy, Jaideep - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) - 2010
development? Our study on Indonesia suggests that fiscal decentralization enhanced free and fair local elections, though the …Does fiscal decentralization in a politically decentralized less developed country help strengthen democratic … institutions at the grass root level? And is the impact of such decentralization on local politics important in determining local …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008683656
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Policy Responses to Fiscal Restraints: A Difference-in-Discontinuities Design
Grembi, Veronica; Nannicini, Tommaso; Troiano, Ugo - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) - 2012
We evaluate the effect of relaxing fiscal rules on policy outcomes applying a quasi-experimental research design. In 1999, the Italian central government introduced fiscal rules aimed at imposing fiscal discipline on municipal governments, and in 2001 the rules were relaxed for municipalities...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010585692
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Public Employment and Redistributive Politics: Evidence from Russia’s Regions
Gimpelson, Vladimir; Treisman, Daniel; Monusova, Galina - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) - 2000
Public employment grew surprisingly fast in Russia during the 1990s, at a time when total employment was falling. Most of this growth occurred in the country’s 89 regions, and rates varied among them. This paper seeks to explain this variation. Using panel data for 78 regions over 1992-1998 we...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005763916
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Why Not Fully Spend a Conditional Block Grant?
Faber, Riemer; Koning, Pierre - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) - 2012
This paper studies a conditional block grant that Dutch municipalities receive for welfare-to-work programs. Many municipalities do not fully use this grant, although programs are beneficial for them. We argue that municipalities incur expenses to use the grant. If these costs are substantial,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010558692
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The Impact of Fiscal and Political Decentralization on Local Public Investments in Indonesia
Kis-Katos, Krisztina; Sjahrir, Bambang Suharnoko - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) - 2014
We investigate the effects of the Indonesian decentralization and democratization process on budget allocation at the … infrastructure. We find that after the dramatic expenditure decentralization of 2001, districts with relatively lower levels of … and administrative decentralization, we find no consistent effects of the democratization process on local public …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010733807
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Moderating Political Extremism: Single Round vs Runoff Elections under Plurality Rule
Bordignon, Massimo; Nannicini, Tommaso; Tabellini, Guido - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) - 2013
We compare single round vs runoff elections under plurality rule, allowing for partly endogenous party formation. Under runoff elections, the number of political candidates is larger, but the influence of extremist voters on equilibrium policy and hence policy volatility are smaller, because the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010688397
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Electoral Rules, Political Competition and Fiscal Expenditures: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Brazilian Municipalities
Chamon, Marcos; Mello, João M. P. de; Firpo, Sergio - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) - 2009
We exploit a discontinuity in Brazilian municipal election rules to investigate whether political competition has a causal impact on policy choices. In municipalities with less than 200,000 voters mayors are elected with a plurality of the vote. In municipalities with more than 200,000 voters a...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008497585
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Tying Your Enemy’s Hands in Close Races: The Politics of Federal Transfers in Brazil
Brollo, Fernanda; Nannicini, Tommaso - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) - 2011
This paper uses a quasi-experimental strategy to disclose utterly political reasons behind the allocation of intergovernmental transfers in a federal state. We apply a regression discontinuity design in close elections to identify the effect of political alignment on federal transfers to...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009021642
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The Political Resource Curse
Brollo, Fernanda; Nannicini, Tommaso; Perotti, Roberto; … - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) - 2010
The paper studies the effect of additional government revenues on political corruption and on the quality of politicians, both with theory and data. The theory is based on a version of the career concerns model of political agency with endogenous entry of political candidates. The evidence...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008543258