In this paper we investigate the determinants of local governments' technical efficiency in road maintenance for a panel of German counties using a broad variety of estimation approaches. More specifically, we calculate efficiency indices using non-parametric (DEA) and parametric (stochastic...

Mit der Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise hat sich die finanzielle Situation der öffentlichen Haushalte stark eingetrübt. Dies gilt insbesondere für die kommunale Ebene. Angesichts dieser angespannten Lage vieler öffentlicher Haushalte wird die Diskussion über die effiziente Verwendung...

We investigate the political determinants of risk premiums which sub-national governments in Switzerland have to pay for their sovereign bond emissions. For this purpose we analyse financial market data from 288 tradable cantonal bonds in the period from 1981 to 2007. Our main focus is on two...

In this paper we use a simple bureaucracy model of fiscal illusion to analyze the impact of intergovernmental grants on the cost efficiency of local jurisdictions. We find that a higher degree of redistribution within a system of fiscal equalization or an increase in the amount of grants...