This study uses a state-level panel data set (1979-1992), encompassing all levels of government, to test the applicability of three theories concerning government size-the Wallis and Brennan/Buchanan versions of the decentralization hypothesis and the Brennan/Buchanan collusion hypothesis-to...

During the 1970s and 1980s, state governments imposed many new more restrictive tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) on local governments. Many theories have been advanced to explain the new wave of TELs. The majority of these explanations suggests that voters found local government had become...