IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rrpaxx/v10y2006i2p37-48.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Local Decision-Making on Capital Spending in US Cities (1980–2000)

Author

Listed:
  • Osung Kwon

Abstract

In the United States, government investments by states and localities decreased substantially during the last several decades. Substantial decreasing trend of capital investments is observed during the 1970s. Since then, the declining trend has persisted, but it is less skewed. Academic studies pay hardly any attention, however, to the gradual decrease in government investments since 1980s. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of capital investments by local governments. Especially, under the scheme of fiscal decentralization since the early 1980s, fiscal behaviors of local decision-makers are becoming a more important element in local public service choices.To test nine hypotheses, a time series on 58 city governments is constructed for the years 1980–2000. 3SLS (three stage least squares) regression analysis is conducted because the relationship between the level of municipal capital expenditures and local debt outstanding is assumed to be simultaneous. The result shows that more independent fiscal decision-making power in a jurisdiction is associated with less capital spending.

Suggested Citation

  • Osung Kwon, 2006. "Local Decision-Making on Capital Spending in US Cities (1980–2000)," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 37-48, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:rrpaxx:v:10:y:2006:i:2:p:37-48
    DOI: 10.1080/12294659.2006.10805067
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/12294659.2006.10805067
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/12294659.2006.10805067?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Grossman, Philip J & West, Edwin G, 1994. "Federalism and the Growth of Government Revisited," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 79(1-2), pages 19-32, April.
    2. Thomas R. Swartz & John E. Peck, 1990. "The Changing Face of Fiscal Federalism," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(6), pages 41-46, November.
    3. Zax, Jeffrey S, 1989. "Is There a Leviathan in Your Neighborhood?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 560-567, June.
    4. Philip Grossman, 1989. "Fiscal decentralization and government size: An extension," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 63-69, July.
    5. Edwin West, 1992. "Federalism and the Growth of Government Revisited," Carleton Economic Papers 92-06, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised Apr 1994.
    6. Forbes, Kevin F & Zampelli, Ernest M, 1989. "Is Leviathan a Mythical Beast?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 568-577, June.
    7. Ronald J. Shadbegian, 1999. "Fiscal Federalism, Collusion, and Government Size: Evidence from the States," Public Finance Review, , vol. 27(3), pages 262-281, May.
    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. Jerry Zhirong Zhao & Shengnan Lou & Camila Fonseca & Richard Feiock & Ruowen Shen, 2021. "Explaining transit expenses in US urbanised areas: Urban scale, spatial form and fiscal capacity," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(2), pages 280-296, February.

    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. Lars Feld, 2014. "James Buchanan’s theory of federalism: from fiscal equity to the ideal political order," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 231-252, September.
    2. Lars P. Feld & Gebhard Kirchgässner & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2010. "Decentralized Taxation and the Size of Government: Evidence from Swiss State and Local Governments," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 77(1), pages 27-48, July.
    3. Paolo Liberati & Agnese Sacchi, 2013. "Tax decentralization and local government size," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 183-205, October.
    4. Samuel Kwabena Obeng, 2021. "Fiscal decentralization, democracy and government size: Disentangling the complexities," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(6), pages 975-1004, August.
    5. Makreshanska, Suzana & Petrevski, Goran, 2016. "Fiscal decentralization and government size across Europe," MPRA Paper 82472, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Manuel E. Lago & Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2024. "On the effects of intergovernmental grants: a survey," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(3), pages 856-908, June.
    7. George Crowley & Russell Sobel, 2011. "Does fiscal decentralization constrain Leviathan? New evidence from local property tax competition," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 5-30, October.
    8. Zhu, Z. & Krug, B., 2005. "Is China a Leviathan?," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2004-103-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    9. George R. Crowley, 2015. "Local Intergovernmental Competition and the Law of 1/n," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(3), pages 742-768, January.
    10. Luiz De Mello, 2001. "Fiscal federalism and government size in transition economies: the case of Moldova," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 255-268.
    11. Makreshanska, Suzana & Petrevski, Goran, 2015. "Fiscal Decentralization and Inflation in Central and Eastern Europe," MPRA Paper 77596, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 16 Mar 2017.
    12. John Anderson & Hendrik van den Berg, 1998. "Fiscal Decentralization and Government Size: An International Test for Leviathan Accounting for Unmeasured Economic Activity," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 5(2), pages 171-186, May.
    13. Schaltegger, Christoph A & Kuttel, Dominique, 2002. "Exit, Voice, and Mimicking Behavior: Evidence from Swiss Cantons," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 113(1-2), pages 1-23, October.
    14. Gebhard Kirchgassner, 2002. "The effects of fiscal institutions on public finance: a survey of the empirical evidence," Chapters, in: Stanley L. Winer & Hirofumi Shibata (ed.), Political Economy and Public Finance, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Ronald J. Shadbegian, 1999. "Fiscal Federalism, Collusion, and Government Size: Evidence from the States," Public Finance Review, , vol. 27(3), pages 262-281, May.
    16. Russo, Massimo, 1998. "Policy coordination in the European Union (from the EMS to EMU)," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 34386, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    17. Stefan Voigt, 2011. "Positive constitutional economics II—a survey of recent developments," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 205-256, January.
    18. Blejer, Mario I., 1998. "Macroeconomic policy coordination in a more integrated world," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 34388, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    19. Russell Sobel & George Crowley, 2014. "Do intergovernmental grants create ratchets in state and local taxes?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 167-187, January.
    20. Diego Pinilla & Juan de Dios Jiménez & Roberto Montero, 2013. "Dimensión del Estado y descentralización fiscal. Elementos para el debate desde la experiencia reciente de América Latina," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, June.

    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:taf:rrpaxx:v:10:y:2006:i:2:p:37-48. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRPA20 .

    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.