Luis Ayala, Ana Herrero-Alcade, and ICePP Director Jorge Martinez-Vazquez recently released “Welfare Benefits in Highly Decentralized Fiscal Systems: Evidence on Interregional Mimicking,” an updated and expanded version of their 2019 paper “Welfare Benefits in Highly Decentralized Fiscal Systems: Evidence on Interterritorial Mimicking” (available here). In this updated edition, the authors analyze the determinants of welfare benefit levels within a highly fiscally decentralized context. Specifically, they analyze the role of mimicking as a driver of the institutional design of subnational government policies in the absence of federal co-ordination and financing. Empirically, they focus on the welfare benefit programs of Spanish regional governments during the period 1996-2015. Their results strongly support the significant role played by mimicking: regional public agents observe what their peers are doing and act accordingly, and this holds even in a context of low mobility of households.
Read the full working paper here.
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The International Center for Public Policy has published a working paper series since 1997 to disseminate academic research quickly and to stimulate discussion that can expand knowledge, instill optimal practice and build capacity in the public sector around the world to improve human well-being.
Our primary areas of interest are fiscal decentralization and local governance, tax policy, and public budgeting and fiscal management in the global context. Some papers may focus on the United States if the results have international relevance.
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