This paper empirically investigates the effect of fiscal decentralization on public safety, which is widely taken as an … of the decentralization effect. In a decentralized setting, the fiscal competition between jurisdictions motivates local … 2009, we find the fiscal decentralization generally lowers the crime rate, but the effect is smaller for mobile crime than …

Differences in the degree of fiscal decentralization observed between the U.S. and many countries in Europe cannot be … explained within the standard theory of fiscal decentralization. By introducing preferences for solidarity equality in the … provision of public goods and services across regions we show that different decentralization schemes can coexist as efficient …