Politics and public infrastructure investments in local governments: empirical evidence from Flemish municipalities (1996-2009)
- Author
- Stijn Goeminne (UGent) and Carine Smolders (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- This article offers new evidence on the political determinants of local government's public investment policy. A public infrastructure investment function was estimated using data for 307 out of 308 Flemish municipalities covering the period 1996-2009. The results reveal that government composition and the timing of the elections matter. The presence of the Liberal Party decreases investments, whereas fragmentation of the government has the opposite effect. Significantly higher investment levels were recorded in years preceding elections contrary to post-election years, which show important slowdown in investment policies. Finally, the analysis shows that local governments are sensitive to the investment policy of neighbouring municipalities. The positive spatial interaction effect implies that a municipality's investments increase on average with 26.2% of changes in investment levels by neighbouring municipalities.
- Keywords
- MACROECONOMIC POLICY, YARDSTICK COMPETITION, REGIONAL ALLOCATION, TAX COMPETITION, FISCAL-POLICY, UNITED-STATES, FRAGMENTATION, DETERMINANTS, CYCLES, EXPENDITURES, Flemish municipalities, yardstick competition, political budget cycles, infrastructure investment, partisan politics, political fragmentation, Public investment
Downloads
-
(...).pdf
- full text
- |
- UGent only
- |
- |
- 213.38 KB
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-3009193
- MLA
- Goeminne, Stijn, and Carine Smolders. “Politics and Public Infrastructure Investments in Local Governments: Empirical Evidence from Flemish Municipalities (1996-2009).” LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES, vol. 40, no. 2, 2014, pp. 182–202, doi:10.1080/03003930.2013.790813.
- APA
- Goeminne, S., & Smolders, C. (2014). Politics and public infrastructure investments in local governments: empirical evidence from Flemish municipalities (1996-2009). LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES, 40(2), 182–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2013.790813
- Chicago author-date
- Goeminne, Stijn, and Carine Smolders. 2014. “Politics and Public Infrastructure Investments in Local Governments: Empirical Evidence from Flemish Municipalities (1996-2009).” LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES 40 (2): 182–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2013.790813.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Goeminne, Stijn, and Carine Smolders. 2014. “Politics and Public Infrastructure Investments in Local Governments: Empirical Evidence from Flemish Municipalities (1996-2009).” LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES 40 (2): 182–202. doi:10.1080/03003930.2013.790813.
- Vancouver
- 1.Goeminne S, Smolders C. Politics and public infrastructure investments in local governments: empirical evidence from Flemish municipalities (1996-2009). LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES. 2014;40(2):182–202.
- IEEE
- [1]S. Goeminne and C. Smolders, “Politics and public infrastructure investments in local governments: empirical evidence from Flemish municipalities (1996-2009),” LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 182–202, 2014.
@article{3009193,
abstract = {{This article offers new evidence on the political determinants of local government's public investment policy. A public infrastructure investment function was estimated using data for 307 out of 308 Flemish municipalities covering the period 1996-2009. The results reveal that government composition and the timing of the elections matter. The presence of the Liberal Party decreases investments, whereas fragmentation of the government has the opposite effect. Significantly higher investment levels were recorded in years preceding elections contrary to post-election years, which show important slowdown in investment policies. Finally, the analysis shows that local governments are sensitive to the investment policy of neighbouring municipalities. The positive spatial interaction effect implies that a municipality's investments increase on average with 26.2% of changes in investment levels by neighbouring municipalities.}},
author = {{Goeminne, Stijn and Smolders, Carine}},
issn = {{0300-3930}},
journal = {{LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES}},
keywords = {{MACROECONOMIC POLICY,YARDSTICK COMPETITION,REGIONAL ALLOCATION,TAX COMPETITION,FISCAL-POLICY,UNITED-STATES,FRAGMENTATION,DETERMINANTS,CYCLES,EXPENDITURES,Flemish municipalities,yardstick competition,political budget cycles,infrastructure investment,partisan politics,political fragmentation,Public investment}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{182--202}},
title = {{Politics and public infrastructure investments in local governments: empirical evidence from Flemish municipalities (1996-2009)}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2013.790813}},
volume = {{40}},
year = {{2014}},
}
- Altmetric
- View in Altmetric
- Web of Science
- Times cited: