This article analyzes the efficiency in the provision of child care services at the municipal level and identifies the main determinants of inefficiency. We use a unique data set on the local child care expenditures in the eastern German State of Saxony. The analysis is performed in two stages....

This paper analysis the link between political strength and public sector wages using a unique matched individual-employer data set for Norwegian local governments during the period 1990-1998. The results indicate that political strength, measured in several ways, has a positive effect on wages,...

This paper studies gender interactions within hierarchical organizations using a large data set on the duration of Italian municipal governments elected between 1993 and 2003. A municipal government can be viewed as a hierarchy, whose stability over time depends on the degree of cooperation...

In dem vorliegenden Evaluationsbericht wird der Stand der Doppik-Einführung in den 133 betroffenen Gebietskörperschaften Sachsen-Anhalts untersucht. Hierzu wurden eine quantitative Online-Befragung, vertiefende Interviews und weitere Analysen durchgeführt. Die flächendeckende Einführung der...

The article is based on the results of author's study survey conducted on a representative sample of municipalities of Podkarpackie voivodship. Based on the results of research, the article will present both the current state of insurance in local government units (LGUs) of the municipal level,...

This paper examines if money matters in education by looking at whether missing resources due to corruption affect student outcomes. We use data from the auditing of Brazil's local governments to construct objective measures of corruption involving educational block grants transferred from the...

This paper first formulates a model of how the politicians in a local government collectively lobby to raise intergovernmental grants to their local government. The model identifies a relationship between council size and grants received. I then study this relationship empirically using the...

The transfer of responsibilities from central to local government has often been justified on the grounds of efficiency and democracy under the principle of subsidiarity. The existing models for mapping local government power in Europe, however, are often insufficiently detailed to allow...

We quantify the private returns and social costs of political connections exploiting a unique longitudinal dataset that combines matched employer-employee data for a representative sample of Italian firms with administrative archives on the universe of individuals appointed in local governments...

Decentralization is commonly advocated as a means to improve primary services and hence accelerate social development. Although theory supports this position, empirical evidence is ambiguous. This paper examines whether local governance can improve social development empirically, with detailed...