In this paper we compare the properties in terms of rent extraction of Hotelling spatial competition and monopoly franchises using Dutch first price auctions, two of the most widely used tools to regulate public service provision. In a framework where the regulator can imperfectly observe costs,...

The literature on public goods provision has experienced a significant increase since Samuelson's (1954) paper. The common goal is to make the model more suitable to describe a more general class of non rival goods. However, there does not seem to be a consensus in the literature on the form of...

The traditional fiscal federalism theory shows that the devolution of functions for the supply of local public goods may increase welfare. However, most services offered at local level are impure local public goods with spillovers. These goods have specific characteristics that may prevent...