Citizens in U.S. metropolitan areas receive goods and services provided by sub-county governments that include municipalities/townships, school districts, and special districts. Beginning with Tiebout, economists have theorized that economic factors play an important role in determining the...

In this paper, we first offer economic arguments in support of greater consideration of user charges to fund public primary and secondary education. Second, to better understand why these economic arguments have not had further influence, a regression analysis shows the factors responsible for...

The main objective of this book is to restate the important theories and evidence from economic analysis concerning intergovernmental fiscal issues. More importantly, the second objective of the book is to identify gaps in knowledge, empirical uncertainties, and missing theoretical structures...

Organizations today have access to vast stores of data that come in a wide variety of forms and may be stored in places ranging from file cabinets to databases, and from library shelves to the Internet. The enormous growth in the quantity of data, however, has brought with it growing problems...

Examines individual participation in amnesties, both from the point of view of what economic analysis would lead us to expect and on the basis of evidence from actual amnesty programs. Concludes that amnesties are appropriate in easing the transition to enhanced enforcement and seen to generate...

Discussion of legislative and constitutional changes implemented in Michigan during 1994 and 1995 to effect school finance reform. Outlines school district spending determinations, reviews finance reform constraints, and compares school finance reform imposed on both school and states.

The ability of the federal government and states to influence educational outcomes depends on how local governments and school districts respond to intergovernmental grants; this article provides a brief primer for policymakers about the economics of education grants.

Interstate differences in expenditures and effective tax rates are examined to see whether the pattern of differences has changed substantially over the past 25 years. The results show that there has been only very modest convergence of per capita expenditures and increased variation of...

The objectives of this article are (1) to present the income and geogtaphic incidence of property tax credits in Michigan; (2) to evaluate the influence of localproperty taxes, local income, and credit parameters on those distributions; and (3) to measure the magnitude of the potential fiscal...

Local sales tax rate differentials are evaluated in a theoretical model allowing for increasing cost industries and consumer transportation cost. It is shown that the tax rate differential variables used in previous research lead to an underestimate of the effects onjurisdiction sales and that...