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Tax policy and yardstick voting in Flemish municipal elections

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Author Info
Jan Vermeir
Bruno Heyndels
Abstract

Recent theoretical papers develop political agency models in which voters compare tax policy with that in neighbouring jurisdictions. In these yardstick competition models voters judge incumbents by comparing their policy with policy in neighbouring jurisdictions. This paper reports an analysis of municipal elections in Flanders during the period 1982 to 2000 and finds empirical evidence for yardstick voting. Incumbents are punished for higher tax rates. Importantly, the electoral punishment also depends on tax rates in neighbouring municipalities. Higher rates in neighbouring municipalities are favourable for the incumbents.

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Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Applied Economics.

Volume (Year): 38 (2006)
Issue (Month): 19 (October)
Pages: 2285-2298
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Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:38:y:2006:i:19:p:2285-2298

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

  1. Edward P. Lazear & Sherwin Rosen, 1981. "Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts," NBER Working Papers 0401, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Bordignon, Massimo & Cerniglia, Floriana & Revelli, Federico, 2004. "Yardstick competition in intergovernmental relationships: theory and empirical predictions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 325-333, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Revelli, Federico, 2002. "Testing the Tax Mimicking versus Expenditure Spill-Over Hypotheses Using English Data," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 34(14), pages 1723-31, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Besley, Timothy & Case, Anne, 1995. "Incumbent Behavior: Vote-Seeking, Tax-Setting, and Yardstick Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(1), pages 25-45, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 1997. "Political Economics and Macroeconomic Policy," CEPR Discussion Papers 1759, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Frey, Bruno S & Schneider, Friedrich, 1978. "A Politico-Economic Model of the United Kingdom," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 88(350), pages 243-53, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Kenneth Rogoff, 1990. "Equilibrium Political Budget Cycles," NBER Working Papers 2428, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Andrei Shleifer, 1985. "A Theory of Yardstick Competition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(3), pages 319-327, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Salmon, Pierre, 1987. "Decentralisation as an Incentive Scheme," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 24-43, Summer.
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  10. Revelli, Federico, 2001. "Spatial Patterns in Local Taxation: Tax Mimicking or Error Mimicking?," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 33(9), pages 1101-07, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Schneider, Friedrich & Pommerehne, Werner W, 1980. "Politico-Economic Interactions in Australia: Some Empirical Evidence," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 56(153), pages 113-31, June.
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  13. Wrede, Matthias, 2001. "Yardstick competition to tame the Leviathan," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 705-721, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Peltzman, Sam, 1992. "Voters as Fiscal Conservatives," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(2), pages 327-61, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Stuart Landon & David L. Ryan, 1997. "The Political Costs of Taxes and Government Spending," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 30(1), pages 85-111, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Geys, Benny & Revelli Federico, 2009. "Decentralization, competition and the local tax mix: evidence from Flanders," Department of Economics Working Papers 200902, University of Turin. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Kristien Werck & Bruno Heyndels & Benny Geys, 2008. "The impact of ‘central places’ on spatial spending patterns: evidence from Flemish local government cultural expenditures," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 35-58, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Heinemann, Friedrich & Overesch, Michael & Rincke, Johannes, 2008. "Rate Cutting Tax Reforms and Corporate Tax Competition in Europe," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-028, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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