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Voting in federal elections for local public goods in a fiscally centralized economy

Author

Listed:
  • Ikuho Kochi

    (Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez)

  • Raúl A. Ponce Rodríguez

    (Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez)

Abstract

In this paper we develop a probabilistic voting model of inter-gov\-ern\-men\-tal transfers to explain the distribution and size of local public goods. We find that: i) The parties’ political competition for votes induces the central government to provide regional transfers that lead to Pareto efficient local public goods with and without inter-regional spillovers. ii) The central government has political incentives to produce differentiated and uniform local public goods. Moreover, we provide a comparative analysis to study the influence of political competition, the extent of inter-regional spillovers of local public goods, and the distribution of the population in the economy on the size and distribution of local public spending.

Suggested Citation

  • Ikuho Kochi & Raúl A. Ponce Rodríguez, 2011. "Voting in federal elections for local public goods in a fiscally centralized economy," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 26(1), pages 123-149.
    • Handle: RePEc:emx:esteco:v:26:y:2011:i:1:p:123-149
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    File URL: https://estudioseconomicos.colmex.mx/index.php/economicos/article/view/102/104
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Raúl Alberto Ponce Rodríguez, 2018. "Campaign contributions and local public goods in a federation," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 33(2), pages 283-311.
    2. Alan Ponce & Raul Alberto Ponce Rodriguez, 2020. "An Analysis of the Supply of Open Government Data," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    inter-governmental transfers; size of government; electoral competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General

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