The fiscal behavior of county governments in Pennsylvania is constrained by state law. Counties can adopt a home rule charter, allowing the county government to set tax rates higher than the statutory limits. Opponents argue that home rule leads to higher taxes and an expansion of county...

The neoclassical growth model implies that if two economies have the same preferences and technology, the poorer country will tend to grow faster in per capita terms. The relatively homogeneous counties of Pennsylvania provide an excellent test of the model's convergence predictions. There is no...