The first chapter investigates the effect of parliamentary supermajority voting requirements for the adoption of new expenditures on government spending. I analyse the introduction of supermajority voting rules in three Swiss cantons in the 1990s. I consider total current expenditures as well as...

Generally, the fiscal effects of municipal mergers receive much attention, while potential fiscal incentives of merging municipalities before the merger are often overlooked. Merging municipalities might be tempted to shift the cost of current expenditures to their merger partners by increasing...