On The Effects of Local Versus Central Government Financing of Local Services
This paper provides some empirical support for pricing a part of local services on user basis. A model of fiscal responses to grants/user fees, based on a vote-maximizing approach, is tested on both time series and pooled data (1977-1991) for 39 upper-tier municipalities in Ontario, Canada. The exogeneity specification of grants is tested and the test results are taken into account in estimating the model. The results indicate that roughly 70 percent of the municipal governments would find it cheaper to finance local spending by grants than by local taxation. If the grant system is abolished, a majority of these governments would prefer to use some sort of user fees in financing local services. The study suggests that local public services can be provided at a substantially lower per-unit cost if some selected services are priced on user basis.
TESTING THE EXOGENEITY OF GRANTS TO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
This paper examines the issue of exogeneity of grants, both conditional and unconditional, with respect to local expenditures. The exogeneity (" weak," "strong," and "super") tests show that these grants are not exogenous. A model of fiscal response to endogenously determined grants is derived and tested on a pooled time-series and cross-section sample of forty-nine upper-tier municipalities in Ontario, 1977-84. The OLS and 2SLS estimates of reduced-form coefficients differ significantly, indicating a simultaneity between grants and expenditures. The estimated grant coefficients are negative significant and less than one, which implies a substitution of grant funds for own expenditures. Coefficient estimates of other socio-economic factors conform to standard results.
Business Crime: Its Nature and Control
Part 1 The nature of business crime: business crime and organizational deviance the nature of business crime. Part 2 Empirical studies of business crime: employee crime and industrial relations - disputed definitions insurance fraud - can the insurance industry control it? taxation - enforcement, equity and effectiveness liquidations and receiverships - the battle for control, by Sally Wheeler financial institutions - securities and investments the regulation of industry - safety versus profits. Part 3 Control.