Recent literature has emphasized that redistributive grant systems may tend to internalize fiscal externalities arising from tax competition. This paper further explores the conditions under which local grant systems enforced by the state government will enhance efficiency. A system of...

This paper is concerned with the question as to what extent population size and density affect the cost of providing public services at the subnational level. Empirical estimates of cost functions are obtained from an analysis of the expenditures of German states disaggregated into about 40...

Das Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern muss in Zukunft mit deutlich geringeren Zahlungen aus den im Rahmen des Solidarpakt II” gewährten Bundesergänzungszuweisungen rechnen. Darüber hinaus wirft auch die demografische Entwicklung, die in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern durch einen starken Rückgang der...

Das Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern muss in Zukunft mit deutlich geringeren Zahlungen aus den im Rahmen des Solidarpakt II” gewährten Bundesergänzungszuweisungen rechnen. Darüber hinaus wirft auch die demografische Entwicklung, die in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern durch einen starken Rückgang der...

Das Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und seine Gemeinden und Gemeindeverbände sehen sich wegen der demographischen Entwicklung und wegen des Rückgangs der Mittel aus dem Solidarpakt II bedeutsamen finanzpolitischen Herausforderungen gegenüber. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist zu begrüßen, dass der...

Eine theoretische Analyse beleuchtet die strategische Investitionsentscheidung zweier Länder in die Ausbildung ihrer Abiturienten im Kontext von freier Studienortwahl und gebührenfreiem Studium. Die freie Inanspruchnahme des Bildungsangebots durch Abiturienten anderer Länder verursacht eine...

Quasi‐hyperbolic discounted preferences imply that consumers overemphasize immediate current rewards and overlook future ones (they have a “bias for the present”). Within this context the literature has emphasized that the misalignment between immediate and future rewards can be rectified...

When grades lose their informative value because the percentage of students receiving the best grade rises without any corresponding increase in ability, this is called grade inflation. Conventional wisdom says that such grade inflation is unavoidable since it is essentially costless to award...

In this paper, citizens vote in order to influence the election outcome and in order to signal their unobserved characteristics to others. The model is one of rational voting and generates the following predictions: (i) The paradox of not voting does not arise, because the benefit of voting does...

A model is presented where universities competitively supply education to mobile students. Students are subject to a liquidity constraint so that tuition must be paid out of pre-university income. It is shown that student loans provided by home jurisdictions will ensure an efficient quality of...