Municipalities may have various motives for decisions on the mode of their task execution. Empirical studies – based on both public choice and transaction costs theory - have not yet provided a fully comprehensive explanation for municipal contracting out decisions. Therefore, we held...

Growing concern for climate change and rising scarcity of fossil fuels prompted governments to stimulate the development of renewables. This paper empirically tests whether feed-in tariff (FIT) policies have been effective in the development of photovoltaic solar (PV), explicitly taking into...

In member states of the European Union, the current VAT treatment of activities of public authorities creates significant distortions in their decisionmaking between public provision and contracting out of public services. In several EU-member states, a refund of VAT to local governments...