German municipalities are expected to suffer from intense demographic changes in the upcoming decades, not only in the form of population losses, but also through a changing demographic structure. We assess local governments' vulnerability to the fiscal consequences of these demographic...

Social and/or political involvement within the population is often argued to enhance public sector performance. The underlying idea is that engagement fosters political awareness and interest and increases the public's monitoring ability. Still, weak fiscal autonomy can undermine voters'...

There is a growing empirical literature studying whether permanent constraints on fiscal policy, such as fiscal rules, reduce sovereign risk premia. Nevertheless, it remains an open question whether these rules are effective genuinely or just because they mirror fiscal preferences of politicians...

K<sc>alb</sc> A. What determines local governments' cost-efficiency? The case of road maintenance, <italic>Regional Studies</italic>. This paper investigates the determinants of local governments' cost-efficiency in road maintenance for a panel of German counties using a broad variety of estimation approaches. More...

Introduction: Theme, Objectives and Structure of the Book -- Methodology: Frontier Efficiency Measurement Techniques -- Literature Review on Efficiency Studies in the Public Sector -- Applications to German Local Governments -- Summary and Conclusions