a r t i c l e i n f o In this paper we endogenize objective functions of the regions in case the of tax competition for foreign owned mobile capital. First, considering symmetric regions and simultaneous move tax competition, we demonstrate that the competing regions can restrict 'race-to-the-bottom' in tax rates by deviating away from social welfare to net tax revenue. Moreover, it is optimal ...

Personnel systems and policies can have a substantial influence on the quality of local government. This paper shows that Japanese local governments provide stable and well-paid careers. Indeed, pay scales are slightly higher than those of central government staff. As a result, Japanese local governments have attracted good staff into their ranks and built up strong human resource capacity over...

This paper models the early dynamics of insurgency using an agent-based computer simulation of civilians, insurgents, and soldiers. In the simulation, insurgents choose to attack government forces, which then strike back. Such government counterattacks may result in the capture or killing of insurgents, may make nearby civilians afraid to become insurgents, but may also increase the anger of su...

Governments have been thrust to the forefront of health care reform efforts as growth in government health care costs was faster than growth in all other sponsor sectors in 1991. In the business sector, real health care costs per worker have risen 65 times faster than real wages and salaries per worker during the past 26 years. Households continue to devote 5 percent of income after taxes to he...

While attention has typically been paid to a few select cities and counties as examples of performance measurement systems, local governments overall have been increasingly active in the development and use of performance measurement processes. This paper reports data from a national survey of city and county administrators from more than 200 local governments across the country. Findings show ...

This paper provides a theory of a parliamentary government system with proportional representation elections and policy-motivated parties and voters. In a symmetric, spatial model governments are majoritarian, they and their policies are durable, and voters elect minority parliaments in every period. A continuum of (Markov) political equilibria exist with policies that represent concessions to ...

Volatility and Growth: Governments are Key There exists a persistent disagreement in the literature over the effect of business cycles on economic growth. This paper offers a solution to this disagreement, suggesting that volatility carries a positive direct effect, but also a negative indirect effect, operating through the insurance mechanism of government size. Theoretically, the net growth e...

This paper links the share of the population supporting the government to the risk of civil war. We study the question both theoretically and empirically. The theoretical model shows that having a smaller group of individuals control the government has an ambiguous effect on conflict risk: although a smaller group is less able to resist rebellion, its high per capita office rent, cost of regain...

A variety of strategies and programs can be used by local governments to promote distributed solar installation. These programs or goals can be attempted in tandem or in a stepwise fashion. First, a goal for solar should be set to provide an example of solar installation benefits to the community. Then, solar permitting should be improved to allow for less time and money spent in the permitting...

We study the dynamic selection of governments. A government consists of a subset of the individuals in the society. The competence level of the government in o ce determines collective utilities (e.g., by determining the amount and quality of public goods), and each individual derives additional utility from being part of the government (e.g., corruption or rents from holding o ce). We characte...