City size and the demand for local public goods

Thiess Buettner and Fédéric Holm-Hadulla
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Thiess Büttner

Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2013, vol. 43, issue 1, 16-21

Abstract: This paper studies how size-induced cost differences in the provision of local public goods affect the efficient level of public spending. Since public goods are non-rival in consumption, the per-capita cost of a given level of public good provision is lower in more populous jurisdictions. We show that this cost advantage gives rise to a substitution of public for private consumption and specify conditions under which the efficient level of local public expenditures per capita rises with a jurisdiction's population size.

Keywords: Local public goods; Congestion; Population size; Fiscal need (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H72 H73 R51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:regeco:v:43:y:2013:i:1:p:16-21

DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2012.10.003

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