This paper considers the provision of some important municipal services and applies the non-parametric double bootstrap Simar and Wilson (J Econ 136(1):31–64, <CitationRef CitationID="CR106">2007</CitationRef>) model based on a truncated-regression to estimate the effect of a group of relevant factors, which include the political sign of...</citationref>

In recent years, Spanish municipal authorities have been devoting important amounts of their resources to financing the construction and maintenance of sports facilities. However, the current financial climate has led to a decrease in the resources available, while demand by citizens has...

This paper analyzes the effects of electoral cycles on municipal police expenditure. We use a database with information on Spanish municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants for the period 2001–2008. Our data show that incumbents increase police spending 1 year before the elections,...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of electoral timing on municipal public cultural spending. We use a panel sample of all municipalities from the Spanish Region of Murcia for 1995–2008. Our results reveal that mayors adopt an opportunistic behavior, increasing cultural spending in...

This article, investigates efficiency in the municipal sector of the Region of Murcia (Spain). With that aim, data of 31 municipalities (69% of the response rate) have been collected. Services analysed are: police, culture, sports, green areas, refuse collection and water supply. Ratios of...

Fiscal outcomes stem from the interaction of economic and political circumstances at the subnational level: divided government, institutions and party control. Thus, socio-economic factors (population, economic level) are not sufficient to explain public sector behaviour, but the political...

This paper analyzes the causes of legal political rent extraction by using a direct measure of it, namely, local top politicians’ wages. In particular, we investigate whether local politicians’ incentives to extract rents by setting their own wages are influenced by the degree of political...