The Dynamic Response of Municipal Budgets to Revenue Shocks

Ines Helm and Jan Stuhler

No 14369, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the fiscal and tax response to intergovernmental grants, exploiting quasi-experimental variation within Germany's fiscal equalization scheme triggered by Census revisions of official population counts. Municipal budgets do not adjust instantly. Instead, spending and investments adapt within five years to revenue gains, while adjustment to revenue losses is more rapid. Yet, the long-run response is symmetric. The tax response is particularly slow, stretching over more than a decade. Well-known empirical "anomalies" in public finance such as the flypaper effect are thus primarily a short-run phenomenon, while long-run fiscal behavior appears more consistent with standard theories of fiscal federalism.

Keywords: flypaper effect; local taxation; government spending; intergovernmental grants; fiscal transfers; Census Shock (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E62 H71 H72 H77 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 72 pages
Date: 2021-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac, nep-pbe and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - published in: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. 2024, 16 (4), 484–527

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Dynamic Response of Municipal Budgets to Revenue Shocks (2024)
Working Paper: The Dynamic Response of Municipal Budgets to Revenue Shocks (2021)
Working Paper: The Dynamic Response of Municipal Budgets to Revenue Shocks (2021)
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