Decentralization of government with property tax financing is the standard recipe for public sector reform. Fiscal competition is assumed to stimulate efficiency and hold down the tax level. Property taxation offers additional incentives for efficiency. We study the incentive mechanisms involved...

In this paper, we first generalize an approximate measure of spatial dependence, the APLE statistic (Li et al., 2007), to a spatial Durbin (SD) model. This generalized APLE takes into account exogenous variables directly and can be used to detect spatial dependence originating from either a...

Applying the rational expectations hypothesis, this essay models the current value of a house as the conditional expectation of the discounted stream of housing services accruing to the owner of the house. The value of housing services is determined by neighborhood effects as well as the...

This paper aims to bring the reflection about using spatial weight matrix in spatial statistics and tests related to detect spatial autocorrelation as well as in the use of spatial regression model when both, time and space, dimensions are present. The development of a unique spatio-temporal...

Abstract New Economic Geography presents increasing returns to agglomeration as a central explanation for concentration of economic activity. The estimation of the size of these effects remains, however, a standing issue in the field. The focus of this study is to investigate the presence of...