This paper critically surveys the growing literature on the policy choices of local
governments. First, we identify various reasons for local government policy interactions …

This paper describes the influence of government ideology on economic policy-making in
the United States. I review studies using data for the national, state and local levels and …

“A short review cannot convey the rich variety of arguments and data Bartels deploys in
making his case…. Bartels shows that social issues do not create as strong a headwind …

Fiscal rules are laws aimed at reducing the incentive to accumulate debt, and many
countries adopt them to discipline local governments. Yet, their effectiveness is disputed …

What is good government? Why do some governments fail? How do you implement political
accountability in practice? What incentives do you need to put in place to ensure that …

A rich array of institutional diversity makes the United States an excellent place to study the
relationship between political institutions and public policy outcomes. This essay has three …

Are cities as politically polarized as states and countries?“No” is the answer from our
regression discontinuity design analysis, which shows that whether the mayor is a Democrat …

State and Local Public Finance provides a comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of
state and local government public finance practices and issues, using the basic tools of …

education. Both TELs and SMRs prove to be very robust predictors of the time series and
cross-sectional variation in state funding effort. Together with rising costs, this retreat of …

I estimate the influence of political parties on state Tax Burdens over a 40-year period (1960–
2000). Holding constant a large number of state and voter characteristic variables, I find …