The paper seeks to quantify the effects of macro development and fiscal indicators on the agriculturalproducer support in the OECD countries during the period 1986-2009. The study is complementaryto the body of microeconomic research that highlights the importance of support toagriculture...

This dissertation analysis the consequences of interjurisdictional competition for a mobile tax base for the efficiency of the public sector and the growth potential of a jurisdiction.

This paper investigates the ratio of general long-term debt to general capital assets’ influence on municipal credit ratings – signals of risk to investors – and coupon rates. Given current uncertainty levels in credit markets, it is paramount that low risk be signaled to sell debt and...

addresses two long-standing positive questions in public finance: 1) Why is the property tax, despite widespread popular complaints against its fairness, the almost exclusive tax instrument used by local governments; and 2) why do we consistently observe higher levels of governments (states)...

The first paper of this dissertation utilizes unique data on teachers' union election certifications in Iowa, Indiana, and Minnesota to analyze the effect of teachers' unions on education production. I find teachers' unions have no impact on teacher pay, class sizes, or per-student expenditures,...

The twenty-two papers collected in this volume illustrate the itinerary of Henry Tulkens, an applied theorist, on the occasion of his retirement from teaching. The collection is structured in four parts: I. Decentralized resource allocation processes for public and private goods - II....

This thesis examines the financing and construction arrangements of the recently designed Airport Link project in Brisbane, Australia. The central hypothesis of the thesis is that the equity risk premium, combined with the public nature of toll roads, makes private financing of this kind of...

This dissertation considers two aspects of the study of fiscal institutions: the importance of understanding their evolution and the need for analyzing their specific form. Chapter 1 addresses the tension between commitment and flexibility in the design of institutions and stresses the...

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht anhand der libanesischen Budgetpolitik von 1964-2000 in wie weit sich „Good Governance“ und nachhaltiger wirtschaftliche Entwicklung gegenseitig beeinflussen.Der wie gefasste Untersuchungsrahmen erlaubt es die libanesische Budgetpolitik in drei verschiedenen...

In this paper, we examine some popular 'choice modelling' approaches to environmental valuation, which can be considered as alternatives to more familiar valuation techniques based on stated preferences such as the contingent valuation method. A number of choice modelling methods are consistent...