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Districts’ co-financing of the central government

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Abstract

We study two districts’ voluntary co-financing of a centrally provided public good. Income taxes are collected both by the two local governments and by the central government. We compare outcomes with a surplus-maximizing level of public good provision. We show that co-financing per se does not influence the amount of public good provided. Co-financing and lobbying are substitutes, so that increased co-financing lowers the marginal amount of lobbying by a district. The production of the public good is closer to the surplus-maximizing level with co-financing and lobbying than with only lobbying. Including spillovers into the model, the provision of the public good can fall below the surplus-maximizing level if co-financing exceeds some threshold value. In order to understand the Swedish government’s claim that co-financing increases funds available for public good provision, we must assume that the central government’s ability to tax its citizens is limited. In this case, co-financing can raise the amount of the public good provided compared with pure central government provision.

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  • Jussila Hammes , Johanna & Mandell , Svante, 2016. "Districts’ co-financing of the central government," Working papers in Transport Economics 2016:12, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2016_012
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    File URL: http://www.transportportal.se/swopec/CTS2016-12.pdf
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Budget constraint; Co-financing; Fiscal federalism; Lobbying; Political economy; Rent-seeking; Spillovers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General

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