This paper investigates the long-term trend and the underlying determinants of public sector centralization in Germany from 1871 until today. The institutional and the quantitative review of the German history provides no conclusive evidence for a continuous process of government centralization...

Recent literature has emphasized that redistributive grant systems may tend to internalize fiscal externalities arising from tax competition. This paper further explores the conditions under which local grant systems enforced by the state government will enhance efficiency. A system of...

This paper uses a simple model of fiscal competition between local jurisdictions to analyse the impact of intergovernmental grants on the composition of public spending. We find that a higher degree of redistribution within a system of ?fiscal equalisation? coincides with a smaller overall share...

This paper uses a simple model of fiscal competition in taxes and public inputs among local jurisdictions to analyze the incentive effects of fiscal equalization transfers. We find that a budget-compensated increase in the contribution rate to a system of fiscal equalization not only induces...

In rural areas, small and medium-sized municipalities are challenged by demographic change and intensified competition for capital and high-skilled labor. Inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) is often regarded as a significant element of a strategy to meet these challenges. Based on a survey in...

Inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) is promoted as a way in which small, fiscally weak munic-ipalities can cope with intensified interregional competition and demographic change. We pro-vide first evidence on citizens' support for IMC using survey data from rural Germany. We cover different fields...

We analyze data from a survey among local council members in 59 German municipali-ties. We ask council members whether their home municipality should cooperate with neigh-boring municipalities in the provision of public services like childcare or road maintenance. Their answers are clearly...

We analyze the factors driving the emergence of inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) in tasks of internal administration in West-Germany between 2001 and 2014. In line with the Institutional Collective Action Approach, we find similarities in political ideology to foster cooperation. Cost pressure...

An increasing number of municipalities cooperates in the field of economic development. In this paper, we focus on a specific instrument in this field, namely the development of joint business parks. We apply a hazard model to data from West-German municipalities between 2000 and 2015. We find...

Die deutsche Energiewende steht sowohl "von oben" als auch "von unten" unter Druck: Verfechter einer dezentralen Energiewende sehen letztere wegen jüngster Änderungen bei der Förderpolitik für Strom aus erneuerbaren Energien in Gefahr, während andererseits eine stärkere europäische...