What is the economic case for increasing the federal minimum wage?To even posit that question sounds odd. Proponents of a higher minimum wage claim that the policy change could alleviate all sorts of economic and social ills. But it's worth assessing, from first principles, the economic...

We construct a unifying model of optimal decentralized policymaking that includes multiple tax and spending policies with mobile workers, mobile residents, and mobile capital. Local governments are atomistic with respect to the world capital market, but are linked by commuting patterns, the cost...

This paper provides some elements to explain the observed takeover in some urban areas of a new kind of elite associated with new economy jobs, also known as "bourgeois bohème" (bobos). This takeover has been associated with greater investment in urban amenities and "clean" means of transport,...

This paper provides some elements to explain the observed takeover in some urban areas of a new kind of elite associated with new economy jobs, also known as "bourgeois boheme" (bobos). This takeover has been associated with greater investment in urban amenities and "clean" means of transport,...

We analyze a simple model of local public good provision in a country consisting of a large number of heterogeneous regions, each comprising two districts, a city and a village. When districts remain autonomous and local public goods have positive spillover effects on the neighboring district,...

Competition at the subnational level concerns how jurisdictions set tax, spending, or regulatory policies while accounting for the fact that these policies affect the locations of individuals, firms and mobile factors. This paper highlights the importance of studying subnational competition and...

The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) of 1992 imparts on local government a constitutional status by introducing new institutions into the deepening of Indian democracy. Several significant innovations in existing functions were introduced through decentralization in order to...

We develop a PD model (PD – probability of default) for sub-sovereign entities, namely UK municipalities. Our methodology serves as an alternative for banks that use the standardised approach or scorecard-based models for assessing the probability of default for municipalities, local...

This paper studies the role of a constitutional rule new to the literature — a limit placed by a city on its own ability to tax or spend. We find that such a limit exists in at least one in eight cities. After limit adoption, municipal revenue growth declines by 13 to 17 percent. Our results...

In this paper we study how the use of resources in the public sector affects industrial structure, the size and the productivity in knowledge-intensive clusters in local communities. We also discuss how these considerations should be implemented in costbenefit assessments of local public goods...