Redistributive grants schemes, such as fiscal equalization, are a common characteristic of local public finance in several countries. However, large and small jurisdictions are treated differently by the respective fiscal equalization schemes that often tend to favour larger jurisdictions. This...

Die vorliegende Arbeit wurde von Christian Kelders in der Zeit seiner Tätigkeit als Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeit des Center for Economic Studies (CES) erstellt und im September 2005 abgeschlossen. Gegenstand der Arbeit sind die Besteuerungsanreize im System der deutschen Kommunalfinanzen....

This paper exploits the introduction of the right of referenda at the local level in the German state of Bavaria in 1995 to study the fiscal effects of direct democracy. In the first part of the paper, we establish the relationship between referenda activity and fiscal performance by using a new...