This paper attempts to achieve three targets: First, to prove that Tiebout's local expenditure theory is wasteful; Second, to show how private firms can efficiently supply public goods; Third, to work out the optimal pricing policy for using public goods. In addition, this paper rejects setting...

Public goods networks arouse conflict between those who already benefit from the project and those who merely pay its costs. Thus, it may seem that it is difficult for pork-barrel politicians to target these public goods for logrolling with other districts. The purpose of this paper is to show...

We study adaptation to climate change in a federalist setting. To protect themselves against an increase in flood risk, regional governments choose among adaptation measures that vary with respect to their costs, the level of protection they offer, and the presence and nature of spillovers to...

I analyze the effects of ethnic divisions on the provision of public goods. Using OpenStreetMap data, I construct a new global dataset of locations of public amenities, such as schools, hospital and libraries. I allow for the possibility that the data may be systematically incomplete using two...

We study adaptation to climate change in a federalist setting. To protect themselves against an increase in flood risk, regional governments choose among adaptation measures that vary with respect to their costs, the level of protection they offer, and the presence and nature of spillovers to...

This paper presents a new global dataset on the geocode locations of public amenities, e.g., schools, hospitals or libraries, based on OpenStreetMap data. Volunteered geocoded information can be systematically incomplete; therefore, we develop and study two new proxies for the degree of...

A widely held view is that increasing globalisation and inequality are fostering support for populist actors. Surprisingly, when focusing on Germany and the U.S., populist voting is highest in less globalised regions with rather equal income distributions. Addressing this puzzle, I ask how the...

Using a Two-Stage Least Squares procedure, we estimate the relationship between ethnic fragmentation and police spending using a cross-section of United States counties. Our results show that, when controlling for community characteristics and accounting for simultaneity bias, ethnic...

This paper uses data on elected village councils in South India to examine the political economy of public resource allocation. We find that the pattern of policy-making reflects politicians' self-interest. Elected councillors benefit from improved personal access to public resources. In...

Using rural household survey data from West Bengal, we find that voters respond positively to excludable government welfare benefits but not to local public good programs, while reporting having benefited from both. Consistent with these voting patterns, shocks to electoral competition induced...