In a pioneering paper on the revenue-complexity hypothesis, Heyndels and Smolders (1995) demonstrate that the conventional employment of the Hirschman-Herfindal index (HHC) in the empirical analysis of fiscal illusion introduces an arbitrary restriction without theoretical foundation. They...

In this study the nature and extent of efficiency and productivity growth in Australian local government is investigated using nonparametric frontier techniques. Employing Malmquist indices, productivity growth is decomposed into technical efficiency change and technological change for two...

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to measure the technical and scale efficiency of the domestic waste management function in 103 New South Wales’ local governments. After allowance is made for nondiscretionary environmental factors which may affect the provision of these local public...

Despite the federal structure of its constitution, no empirical study of fiscal illusion at the level of state expenditure has yet been undertaken in Australia. This paper seeks to go at least some way towards remedying the omission by subjecting the revenue-complexity, revenue-elasticity and...