States that were represented by very senior Democratic congressmen grew more quickly during the 1953-90 period than states that were represented by more junior congressional delegations. States with a large fraction of politically competitive House districts also grew faster than average. The...

An important public policy question that remains unresolved is whether devolution will enhance sensible policy making by exploiting informational asymmetries or, instead, trigger a "beggar thy neighbor" response and stimulate free riding amongst localities. We analyze this question within the...