Federalism and Decentralization - A Critical Survey of Frequently Used Indicators
@article{Blume2008FederalismAD, title={Federalism and Decentralization - A Critical Survey of Frequently Used Indicators}, author={Lorenz Blume and Stefan Voigt}, journal={Games \& Political Behavior eJournal}, year={2008} }
The economic effects of federalism are unclear: some papers find that federalism has strong positive effects on a number of economically relevant variables, others find negative effects. The results often crucially hinge on the proxies for federalism used. In this paper, we critically survey the existing indicators for both federalism and fiscal decentralization. We argue that federalism is a constitutional institution, whereas decentralization is the outcome of a policy choice, and that the…
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