IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/publus/v44y2014i4p587-608..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Local Fiscal Responses to Procyclical Changes in State Aid

Author

Listed:
  • Phuong Nguyen-Hoang
  • Yilin Hou

Abstract

This article examines the asymmetry in local government responses to economic-cycle-based changes of state aid in a framework that distinguishes current outlay from noncurrent expenses and discretionary savings. Employing a panel dataset of Massachusetts municipalities for two economic cycles, we obtain three findings. First, we do not find evidence of property-tax relief during economic booms. Second, discretionary savings may be used to cover noncurrent outlays during booms and to offset spending cuts during recessions. Finally, we find a large (asymmetric) fiscal inducement that may emerge during recessions when state aid cuts coincide with property-tax shortfalls. While these context-specific results may not be easily generalizable, they necessitate further research into the role of local discretionary savings and cash reserves in intergovernmental fiscal relations.

Suggested Citation

  • Phuong Nguyen-Hoang & Yilin Hou, 2014. "Local Fiscal Responses to Procyclical Changes in State Aid," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 587-608.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:publus:v:44:y:2014:i:4:p:587-608.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/publius/pjt039
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    2. Bruno Heyndels, 2001. "Asymmetries in the flypaper effect: empirical evidence for the Flemish municipalities," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(10), pages 1329-1334.
    3. Bergstrom, Theodore C & Goodman, Robert P, 1973. "Private Demands for Public Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(3), pages 280-296, June.
    4. Kleibergen, Frank & Paap, Richard, 2006. "Generalized reduced rank tests using the singular value decomposition," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 97-126, July.
    5. Goodspeed, Timothy J., 1998. "The Relationship Between State Income Taxes and Local Property Taxes: Education Finance in New Jersey," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 51(2), pages 219-238, June.
    6. Steven C. Deller & Craig S. Maher, 2006. "A Model of Asymmetries in the Flypaper Effect," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 213-229.
    7. Downes, Thomas A. & Pogue, Thomas F., 1994. "Adjusting School Aid Formulas for the Higher Cost of Educating Disadvantaged Students," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 47(1), pages 89-110, March.
    8. John Ashworth & Bruno Heyndels, 2005. "Government Fragmentation And Budgetary Policy In "Good" And "Bad" Times In Flemish Municipalities," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17, pages 245-263, July.
    9. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413.
    10. Stephen Coate & Brian Knight, 2011. "Government Form and Public Spending: Theory and Evidence from US Municipalities," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 82-112, August.
    11. Fisher, Ronald C. & Papke, Leslie E., 2000. "Local Government Responses to Education Grants," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(1), pages 153-168, March.
    12. Melo, Ligia, 2002. "The Flypaper Effect under Different Institutional Contexts: The Colombian Case," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 111(3-4), pages 317-345, June.
    13. Ajit Karnik & Mala Lalvani, 2005. "Urban Local Governments and the Flypaper Effect: Evidence from Maharashtra, India," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 35(2), pages 273-295, Spring.
    14. Jinyong Hahn & Jerry Hausman & Guido Kuersteiner, 2004. "Estimation with weak instruments: Accuracy of higher-order bias and MSE approximations," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 7(1), pages 272-306, June.
    15. Levaggi, Rosella & Zanola, Roberto, 2003. "Flypaper Effect and Sluggishness: Evidence from Regional Health Expenditure in Italy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(5), pages 535-547, September.
    16. Wang, Wen & Duncombe, William D. & Yinger, John M., 2011. "School District Responses to Matching Aid Programs for Capital Facilities: A Case Study of New York’s Building Aid Program," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 64(3), pages 759-794, September.
    17. Downes, Thomas A. & Pogue, Thomas F., 1994. "Adjusting School Aid Formulas for the Higher Cost of Educating Disadvantaged Students," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(1), pages 89-110, March.
    18. John Ashworth & Bruno Heyndels, 2005. "Government Fragmentation And Budgetary Policy In “Good” And “Bad” Times In Flemish Municipalities," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(2), pages 245-263, July.
    19. Stine, William F., 1994. "Is Local Government Revenue Response to Federal Aid Symmetrical? Evidence from Pennsylvania County Governments in a Era of Retrenchment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 47(4), pages 799-816, December.
    20. Romer, Thomas & Rosenthal, Howard, 1982. "Median Voters or Budget Maximizers: Evidence from School Expenditure Referenda," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 20(4), pages 556-578, October.
    21. Yilin Hou, 2005. "Fiscal Reserves and State Own-Source Expenditure in Downturn Years," Public Finance Review, , vol. 33(1), pages 117-144, January.
    22. Gamkhar, Shama & Oates, Wallace E., 1996. "Asymmetries in the Response to Increases and Decreases in Intergovernmental Grants: Some Empirical Findings," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 49(4), pages 501-12, December.
    23. Steven Deller & Craig Maher, 2009. "Is the treatment of intergovernmental aid symmetric?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 331-335.
    24. Shama Gamkhar & Wallace Oates & Shama Gamkhar & Wallace Oates, 2004. "Asymmetries in the Response to Increases and Decreases in Intergovernmental Grants: Some Empirical Findings," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 15, pages 261-272, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    25. Craig Volden, 0. "Asymmetric Effects of Intergovernmental Grants: Analysis and Implications for U.S. Welfare Policy," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 29(3), pages 51-73.
    26. Jeffrey P. Cohen, 2002. "Reciprocal State and Local Airport Spending Spillovers and Symmetric Responses to Cuts and Increases in Federal Airport Grants," Public Finance Review, , vol. 30(1), pages 41-55, January.
    27. Bruno Heyndels & Frank Van Driessche, 2002. "How municipalities react to budgetary windfalls," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 211-226, November.
    28. Yilin Hou, 2013. "State Government Budget Stabilization," Studies in Public Choice, Springer, edition 127, number 978-1-4614-6061-9, June.
    29. Fisher, Ronald C. & Papke, Leslie E., 2000. "Local Government Responses to Education Grants," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 1), pages 153-68, March.
    30. Santiago Lago-Peñas, 2008. "Local Governments' Asymmetric Reactions to Grants," Public Finance Review, , vol. 36(2), pages 219-242, March.
    31. Shama Gamkhar, 2000. "Is the Response of State and Local Highway Spending Symmetric to Increases and Decreases in Federal Highway Grants?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 28(1), pages 3-25, January.
    32. Yilin Hou & Daniel Smith, 2010. "Do state balanced budget requirements matter? Testing two explanatory frameworks," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 57-79, October.
    33. Moffitt, Robert A., 1984. "The effects of grants-in-aid on state and local expenditures : The case of AFDC," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 279-305, April.
    34. Rexford Santerre, 1989. "Representative versus direct democracy: Are there any expenditure differences?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 145-154, February.
    35. Evans, William N & Kessides, Ioannis N, 1993. "Localized Market Power in the U.S. Airline Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(1), pages 66-75, February.
    36. Bradbury, Katharine L. & Mayer, Christopher J. & Case, Karl E., 2001. "Property tax limits, local fiscal behavior, and property values: evidence from Massachusetts under Proposition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 287-311, May.
    37. Stine, William F., 1994. "Is Local Government Revenue Response to Federal Aid Symmetrical? Evidence From Pennsylvania County Governments in a Era of Retrenchment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(4), pages 799-816, December.
    38. Bradbury, Katharine & Zhao, Bo, 2009. "Measuring Non–School Fiscal Disparities Among Municipalities," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 62(1), pages 25-56, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michelle L. Lofton, 2022. "The impact of excess taxing capacity on short‐term resources," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 3-27, March.
    2. Michelle L. Lofton & Sharon N. Kioko, 2021. "The use of short‐term debt by general‐purpose governments," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 71-93, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leonel Muinelo-Gallo, 2021. "Testing regional intergovernmental transfers effects in Uruguay," Sobre México. Revista de Economía, Sobre México. Temas en economía, vol. 2(4), pages 6-38.
    2. Manuel E. Lago & Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2022. "On the effects of intergovernmental grants: a survey," Working Papers. Collection A: Public economics, governance and decentralization 2204, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    3. Santiago Lago-Peñas, 2008. "Local Governments' Asymmetric Reactions to Grants," Public Finance Review, , vol. 36(2), pages 219-242, March.
    4. Luiz de Mello, 2007. "Local Government Finances: The Link between Intergovernmental Transfers and Net Worth," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 581, OECD Publishing.
    5. Tae Ho Eom & William Duncombe & Phuong Nguyen-Hoang & John Yinger, 2014. "The Unintended Consequences of Property Tax Relief: New York’s STAR Program," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 9(4), pages 446-480, October.
    6. Laura Sour, 2013. "The flypaper effect in Mexican local government," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 28(1), pages 165-186.
    7. Yihua Yu & Jing Wang & Xi Tian, 2016. "Identifying the Flypaper Effect in the Presence of Spatial Dependence: Evidence from Education in China's Counties," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 93-110, March.
    8. Kopańska Agnieszka, 2018. "Partial Fiscal Decentralization and Local Government Spending Policy," Financial Internet Quarterly (formerly e-Finanse), Sciendo, vol. 14(3), pages 21-31, September.
    9. Gamkhar, Shama & Olson, Jerome A., 2001. "Asymmetric responses in economic models," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 553-568, July.
    10. Steven C. Deller & Craig S. Maher, 2006. "A Model of Asymmetries in the Flypaper Effect," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 213-229.
    11. Muinelo-Gallo, Leonel & Azar, Paola, 2018. "Testing regional intergovernmental transfers asymmetries in Uruguay," MPRA Paper 90245, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Asharani Samal, 2020. "An Empirical Analysis of Asymmetry and Threshold Effect of Intergovernmental Grants in India: A Panel Data Analysis," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 21(2), pages 458-472, April.
    13. Fernando João Alexandre Parmagnani & Fabiana Fontes Rocha, 2013. "Evaluating the impact of SUS transfers on municipalities' health expenditures," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2013_23, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP), revised 15 Jan 2014.
    14. Borge, Lars-Erik, 2000. "Charging for public services: the case of utilities in Norwegian local governments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 703-718, December.
    15. Shani, Ron & Reingewertz, Yaniv & Vigoda-Gadot, Eran, 2023. "Intergovernmental grants and local public finance: An empirical examination in Israel," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    16. Shama Gamkhar, 2000. "Is the Response of State and Local Highway Spending Symmetric to Increases and Decreases in Federal Highway Grants?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 28(1), pages 3-25, January.
    17. John Ashworth & Bruno Heyndels, 2005. "Government Fragmentation And Budgetary Policy In "Good" And "Bad" Times In Flemish Municipalities," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17, pages 245-263, July.
    18. Marcel Thum & Thomas Fester & Andreas Kappler & Helmut Seitz, 2005. "Öffentliche Infrastruktur und kommunale Finanzen : Gutachten im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Verkehr, Bau- und Wohnungswesen und des Bundesamtes für Bauwesen und Raumordnung," ifo Dresden Studien, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 37, July.
    19. John Ashworth & Bruno Heyndels, 2005. "Government Fragmentation And Budgetary Policy In “Good” And “Bad” Times In Flemish Municipalities," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(2), pages 245-263, July.
    20. Levaggi, Rosella & Zanola, Roberto, 2000. "The Flypaper Effect: Evidence from the Italian National Health System," POLIS Working Papers 10, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:publus:v:44:y:2014:i:4:p:587-608.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/publius .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.