Pandering Politicians? Targeted Economic Development Incentives and Voter Response

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 673-716
Author(s):  
Jacob Bundrick ◽  
Erica Smith ◽  
Weici Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
County Level ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Previous Election ◽  
Credit Claiming ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Development Incentives ◽  
Gubernatorial Election ◽  
The Impact

Empirical evidence largely suggests that the billions of dollars state and local governments spend on targeted economic development incentive (EDI) programs are typically ineffective at stimulating broad economic activity. The continued use of EDIs by public officials has thus led scholars to investigate the role of these programs in political pandering. In this paper, we explore the relationship between EDIs and gubernatorial elections in Arkansas. Specifically, we investigate whether officials strategically allocate discretionary EDIs based on previous county-level gubernatorial election outcomes. We subsequently explore the impact of discretionary EDIs on an incumbent party’s bid for gubernatorial reelection at the county level. Our results largely suggest that public officials do not allocate EDIs based on previous election outcomes. Moreover, our results indicate that voters are unresponsive to both the quantity and magnitude of credit claiming messages.

scholarly journals Innovative development of the regions: cooperation between enterprises and state institutions

2019 ◽  
pp. 354-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataliya Tyukhtenko ◽  
Serhii Makarenko ◽  
Nataliia Oliinyk ◽  
Krzysztof Gluc ◽  
Edwin Portugal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Industrial Parks ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Regional Product ◽  
The Impact

In the conditions of limited sources of financing for the introduction of advanced innovative technologies and equipment modernization, to retain the existing positions and increase the overall level of competitiveness can only the company that establishes a close relationship with government bodies, local governments and trade union organizations with the aim of obtaining possible preferences for development within the existing regulatory right field. The purpose of the article is to analyze the main socio-economic indicators of the development of Ukraine and its regions, the definition and justification of possible areas of establishing interaction between private enterprises and government agencies. The methodological basis of the study consisted of scientific works of domestic and foreign scientists and leading specialists, statistical and analytical materials of state authorities. The results are obtained through the use of such methods as expert – to identify the impact of qualitative and quantitative indicators on the socio-economic development of the Kherson region; economics and mathematics – to study the influence of a defined group of indicators on the index of the physical volume of the gross regional product; abstract-logical – for a theoretical synthesis and formulation of conclusions. It is revealed that among the key areas of interaction is the promotion of the state and local authorities in the creation of industrial parks. The conducted research on identifying the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the economy of the Kherson region indicates the need to develop measures to ensure the economic security of the region. To solve these problems at the regional level, it is proposed to implement a state policy that would be carried out in the following areas: ensuring a solid institutional protection of investor's property rights; improvement of the legislative framework; establishing an effective mechanism for combating corruption in Ukraine, developing an effective state policy on amnesty and unshadowing of incomes of individuals and legal entities. Keywords: socio-economic development, management, innovation, industrial park, competitiveness, foreign investment, amnesty of capital.

Asymmetrical Attribution of Performance in China

Asian Survey ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 978-1003
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Chen Chen ◽  
Jun Xiang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Multilevel Mediation ◽  
Dual Pathway ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Impact

Existing studies of the impact of economic development on political trust in China have two major gaps: they fail to explain how economic development contributes to the hierarchical trust pattern, and they do not pay enough attention to the underlying mechanisms. In light of cultural theory and political control theory, we propose adapting performance theory into a theory of “asymmetrical attribution of performance” to better illuminate the case of China. This adapted theory leads to dual pathway theses: expectation fulfillment and local blaming. Using a multilevel mediation model, we show that expectation fulfillment mainly upholds trust in the central government, whereas local blaming undermines trust in local governments. We also uncover a rural–urban distinction in the dual pathway, revealing that both theses are more salient among rural Chinese.

How Does a Reduction in Mandated Medicaid Spending Affect Local Fiscal Behaviors? Evidence from New York State

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-547
Author(s):  
Yusun Kim
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
New York State ◽  
Property Tax ◽  
Effective Property ◽  
Medicaid Spending ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Sudden Decrease ◽  
The Impact

In 2005, New York (NY) state capped the growth of county-level Medicaid spending, which abruptly decreased counties’ Medicaid outlay in both relative and absolute terms. This study exploits this discontinuity in county Medicaid outlay to estimate the impact of the relief mandate policy on county budgets and property tax levies. It bridges a gap in the public finance literature by addressing local government responses to a sudden decrease in the outlay of a large mandatory spending category. We find a compositional change but no income effect on non-Medicaid spending. However, the policy reduced the effective property tax rate significantly by 6.6 to 8.1 percent on average among affected NY counties after the enactment of the policy relative to control counties. This study advances our understanding of local fiscal responses to an intergovernmental fiscal policy that changes how state and local governments share the costs of a large public social insurance program.

The Effects of Economic Performance on Infrastructure Spending at the State and Local Levels

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 330-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suho Bae
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Infrastructure Investment ◽  
Knowledge Infrastructure ◽  
Economic Development And Growth ◽  
Physical Infrastructure ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Local Levels

AbstractEconomic development and growth may induce infrastructure investment and service provision by the public sector. This article investigates to what degree economic performance affects infrastructure spending at the state and local levels. For further elaboration, it examines the differential impacts of economic performance on state and local spending on different types of infrastructure. For that purpose, infrastructure is classified into two types: knowledge infrastructure and physical infrastructure. Methodologically, it uses the time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) data from 1977 to 2000 in 50 states of the USA. To correct the complex error terms in TSCS data, it uses the ordinary least square estimation using the Prais-Winsten procedure and panel-corrected standard errors. Some endogeneity issues are also corrected. Research finds that economic development and growth contributes to the increasing infrastructure spending on a per capita basis by state and local governments; however, its magnitude is not large. When infrastructure spending is disaggregated, economic performance also contributes to the increasing state and local spending on both knowledge and physical infrastructures. In particular, the magnitude of the positive effects on physical infrastructure spending is approximately two times as large as that on knowledge infrastructure spending. However, economic performance has no significant effects on the proportion of infrastructure spending out of the total state and local spending, regardless of whether infrastructure is aggregated or disaggregated. In short, there are level effects of economic performance, but there are no compositional effects. This finding implies that state and local governments increase infrastructure investment and its service provision in responding to the economic growth; yet, they do not consider it as a top priority in comparison with other types of functional areas.

Government and Fiscal Policy in American Economic History

2018 ◽  
pp. 194-224
Author(s):  
John Joseph Wallis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Property Tax ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Payroll Taxes ◽  
The Third ◽  
State And Local

Over the last 225 years, government finances in the United States have gone through three distinct stages. In the first stage, 1790–1850, state governments actively pursued policies to promote economic development and financed them from revenues from state investments. In the second, 1850–1930, local governments became the most important level of government, as measured by revenues and expenditures, and revenues shifted toward the property tax. In the third period, 1930 to the present, the national government became the most active and largest level of government, financed through income and payroll taxes, and developed an extensive network of grants to state and local governments. The chapter tracks the changes in sources of revenues and purpose of expenditures, with specific attention paid to military spending over the entire period.

Competing and Cooperating across State Borders in Economic Development

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Lombard ◽  
John C. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
State Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Cross Border Cooperation

This essay discusses the evolution of cross-border cooperation in local and state government in the contentious and competitive arena of economic development. Drawing on literatures from economic development and public administration, the authors highlight current issues and conflicts in cross-border cooperation drawing on several cases of successful ventures. In particular, they suggest that state and local governments adopt a new frame for understanding and evaluating cross-border cooperation as economic development “coopertition.” The logic of coopertition in economic development is that while a particular unit of government may not secure a specific economic development project, the odds of securing any project are increased if that government becomes more competitive by cooperating with other governments. Coopertition is thus the result of a need to cooperate to be more competitive.

scholarly journals The impact of household connection to public network wastewater systems: regulatory impact assessment

2019 ◽  
Vol 79 (6) ◽  
pp. 1060-1070
Author(s):  
Bruno Eustaquio de Carvalho ◽  
Samuel Alves Barbi Costa ◽  
Rui Cunha Marques ◽  
Oscar Cordeiro Netto
Keyword(s):  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Public Network ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Regulatory Impact ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Regulatory Impact Assessment

Abstract Brazil faces a severe lack of wastewater coverage. Even in urban areas, wastewater is directly disposed of in watercourses without any treatment for a large part of the population. Although the federal, state, and local governments have invested in water and wastewater services (WWS), the expected results have not been achieved. To overcome this problem, the present paper provides an opportunity to observe an ex-ante regulatory impact assessment (RIA) as a policy tool in Brazil. The regulatory policy options will be appraised through the multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) according to the following objectives: (i) protect the customers with respect to social aspects; (ii) safeguard the economic, operational and infrastructure sustainability; and (iii) protect the environment. The results show that by making decisions based on evidence, policy makers should reduce the households not connected to wastewater services by 75% and for that they should incur BRL 33 million to the year 2023. Hence, the extra revenues to be obtained with these new connections are capable of making a surplus estimated as BRL 42 million for the same period. This study promotes the use of RIA as a rational, robust and transparent decision framework by the regulatory agencies worldwide.

The politics of redistribution in local governments: the effect of gender representation on welfare spending in California counties

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanghee Park
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
State Legislature ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Gender Representation ◽  
Home Rule ◽  
Political Preference ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Welfare Spending ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis research explores the impact of gender representation at the state and local levels on redistributive choices. This research also examines whether female officeholders moderate the impact of the local economy and institution on welfare spending. Hypotheses are tested across 58 counties in California over ten years, between 2001 and 2010. According to the fixed effect models, women in state legislature had a positive effect on local welfare spending, while women on county boards had no significant effect. However, a positive moderating effect of women on county boards during economic hardship was found. Three categories of control variables include institutional factors, such as the introduction of Proposition 1A and county home rule; political factors, such as the political preference of each county’s residents and strength of non-profit organisations; and socio-economic factors, such as intergovernmental revenue, unemployment rate and demographics. Counties with more intergovernmental revenue and supporters of Democratic presidential candidates are likely to spend more on welfare services.

PRIORITIZING SIDEWALK UPGRADE PROJECTS TO MAXIMIZE COMPLIANCE WITH ACCESSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayman Halabya ◽  
Khaled El-Rayes
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Transition Plans ◽  
Full Compliance ◽  
Transition Plan ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Impact

People with disabilities form 18.7% of the United States population, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2012. To avoid discrimination against this significant portion of the population, state and local governments are required by federal and state laws to provide and maintain accessibility for people with disabilities on their sidewalks and pedestrian facilities. To achieve compliance with these laws, state and local governments need to conduct self-evaluations to identify inaccessible pedestrian facilities and develop transition plans to schedule upgrade projects for these inaccessible pedestrian facilities. The federally-mandated transition plan requirements include the development of a schedule that displays, in detail, deadlines for all upgrade projects needed to achieve full compliance with accessibility requirements. To prepare this schedule, public entities are required to rank and prioritize pedestrian facilities upgrade projects. This paper presents the development of a novel methodology to quantify the impact of upgrading inaccessible pedestrian facilities on people with disabilities. The developed methodology considers several factors related to pedestrian facilities’ conditions and location to estimate the number of expected pedestrians with disabilities impacted by upgrading each inaccessible pedestrian facility. This methodology is designed to assist decision makers in state and local governments in the process of ranking and prioritizing inaccessible pedestrian facilities upgrade projects.

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