Age based service demands in Canada: municipal responsibility and financing

Harry Kitchen

Local Government Studies, 2021, vol. 47, issue 3, 386-404

Abstract: The current trend towards an ageing population and the fact that a smaller percentage of this cohort is poor when compared with younger age groups poses challenges in the way in which some senior services are financed. The long-established practice of discounting fees or lowering property taxes based strictly on age rather than ability to pay raises a number of equity and efficiency concerns. It is unfair because those who are younger and poorer end up subsidising those who are older and richer. It is inefficient because those paying discounted prices or taxes have an incentive to demand more than they would if they paid the full price. This, in turn, leads to more municipal resources being devoted to the service than is economically efficient and it may create significant revenue challenges for municipalities with limited resources.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03003930.2020.1802252 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:flgsxx:v:47:y:2021:i:3:p:386-404

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/flgs20

DOI: 10.1080/03003930.2020.1802252

Access Statistics for this article

Local Government Studies is currently edited by Helen Hancock

More articles in Local Government Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().