The experience of Olongapo City in managing economic distress due to the loss of its economic anchor, the Subic Bay Naval Base, offers a rich lesson in local governance on how critical it is to plan ahead. The risk of a severe downturn, primarily due to economic dependency, can be successfully...

The scope of the paper is to discuss the role of good governance in improving responsiveness of local government to the needs of the selected target markets (investors, tourists, students). The criteria of good governance and governance indicators are analysed with regard of their applicability...

States merge small and medium sized municipalities to achieve economies of scale. Little is known to which extent mergers of large local governments reduce expenditures. I use the synthetic control method to identify the effect of mergers of county-sized administrations in Germany (districts) on...

The present work looks at the relationship between institutional structure and economic performance at the regional level. The work focuses on one particular aspect, the number of municipalities in a given region (municipal fragmentation) and the impact on regional development measured as GDP...

Delivering public goods and services requires identifying the needs of constituents and designing policies and programs to address these needs in the hopes of attaining development. These policy and program interventions should get the appropriate budgetary allocations to be implemented and...

The political business cycle theories describe that election-motivated politicians manipulate economic policy-making. Election cycles occur in many fiscal variables, for example tax rates. I examine whether electoral motives influence communal fees in Germany. Fees have to be paid for the use of...

We estimate the causal effect of direct elections on the economic performance of politicians. Candidates running in direct elections to head local governments in the German state of Brandenburg need an absolute majority, and votes for the winner must represent at least 15% of eligible voters. If...

The paper uses the consolidation of municipalities brought about by the Fascist dictatorship in Italy during the 1920s to gauge the role of the size of local jurisdictions for economic development. It finds that the consolidation was associated with relevant net welfare gains for the communities...