Unequal Provision of Local Public Services under the Threat of Secession

Anna Brink
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Anna Brink : Department of Economics, School of Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG

No 103, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper studies to what extent it is possible to discriminate between two municipality parts by unequal public service provision when there is a threat of secession. The objective of the local politicians is to maximize utility for only one part of a municipality. The discriminated part is small and politically marginalized, but has the option to secede. The power of the small part's population is in this way entirely exercised through the threat of secession. It becomes their guarantee against being taxed too heavily or against obtaining too little of public services. The case of three recent secession attempts in Göteborg, Sweden, is discussed in light of the model.

Keywords: secession; local public services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H29 H79 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2003-09-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-pbe and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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