Purpose: This study aims to analyze major concerns facing the Palestinian local governments in order to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency in managing local governments.Methodology: A special questionnaire was developed to collect the perception of the municipalities'...

The paper provides empirical evidence on the financial incentives that senior bureaucrats face. Traditionally, bureaucrats are viewed as a stereotypical example of employees with flat pay schedules and low-powered incentive schemes. This paper challenges that view by providing evidence that the...

Abstract: One of the fundamental questions in democratic governance is whether policies are best decided by elected officials or by appointed bureaucrat-experts. The study examines this issue in the context of how municipal government form influences government-wide budgetary solvency....

Contrary to popular belief which sees the governments as reactive and resistant to change, the increasing emergence of innovative ideas particularly in the field of local services yielded a wide range of interactions. This was due to address new policy challenges, improve productivity, better...

The main objective of this paper is to verify whether electoral competition increases the supply of public goods in a federalist country where the decision-making process about public policy occurs at the local level (there are both local executive and legislative branches) and the political...

Shelton (2007) showed that the elderly population (over 65 years old) is associated with a larger local government size (including social expenditures except transportation). This can be observed only in countries where the political system permits the influence of interest groups on local...

The wage paid to politicians affects both the choice of citizens to run for an elective office and the performance of those who are appointed. First, if skilled individuals shy away from politics because of higher opportunities in the private sector, an increase in politicians’ pay may change...

This paper explores the factors that contribute to long-run economic growth in U.S. metropolitan areas, with particular attention given to government finance variables. Unlike previous work that examines only a sub-sample of the largest areas, this paper uses a new comprehensive data set for all...

This paper aims at testing whether there exist spending interactions between French municipalities by estimating a dynamic panel data model. Our results suggest that there are some interactions between neighbouring municipalities as regards primary and investment expenditures. A positive...

This paper reports developments of a longitudinal exploratory study on the Turkish local e-governments between September 2005 and December 2006. 3,228 Turkish local governments constitute the sampling framework of this study. The aim is to give a recent portrait and progress of the Turkish local...