The well-known “Decentralization Theorem” (Oates, 1972) establishes the superiority of decentralized public provision over the centralized case, which is not so sensitive to the diversity of expenditure needs among territories. We test this hypothesis using a unique Spanish database that provides information on road and educational infrastructure investment and capital...

This paper aims at studying the scope of agglomerations economies empirically. In particular, two issues are explored. First, the industrial scope of agglomeration economies is analysed, by comparing the effects arising from co-localization of same industry firms (localization economies) to the benefits derived from large and diversified economic environments (urbanization/Jacobs...

The paper presents a framework for measuring spillovers resulting from local expenditure policies. We identify and test for two different types of expenditure spillovers: (i) “benefit spillovers”, arising from the provision of local public goods, and (ii) “crowding spillovers”, arising from the crowding of facilities by residents in neighboring jurisdictions....

This paper investigates the link between local budget outcomes and the intensity of party competition, measured as the margin of victory obtained by the incumbent in the previous local election (i.e. the difference between the vote share and 50%). Two competing hypotheses are tested in the paper. On the one...

This paper estimates the degree of economies of scope, diversification and scale in the Spanish electricity industry by means of Data Envelopment Analysis. Our results show that there exist economies of integrating power generation and distribution, as well as economies of product diversification at the generation stage. Particularly, the hypothetical...

This paper quantifies the welfare effects of the Spanish public investment in infrastructures. For that purpose, we use data on Spanish economy to calibrate a dynamic general equilibrium model with a representative agent, where public investment is financed by means of distortionary taxes. As is usual, the stock of public...