Municipal Management Structure and Fiscal Performance: Do City Managers Make a Difference?

Abstract

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User charges and bureaucratic inefficiency

“…10. The model used here is similar to those used by Deno and Mehay [1987] and Borcherding and Deacon [1972]. 11.…”

“…If renters labor under greater fiscal illusion than resident homeowners, increases in POOH will be associated with lower expenditures. Deno and Mehay [1987], among others, have examined the possibility that the form taken by a city government may affect expenditures. To capture this effect, CM is a dummy variable that is equal to 1 if the city employs a city manager type of system.…”

Politicians, bureaucrats and targeted redistribution

“…Since bureaucrats are themselves appointed by elected politicians, they should follow exactly the same policies as directly elected public o¢ cials, so earlier literature suggested that the method of selection of public o¢ cials has no e¤ect on policy outcomes (Baron, 1988;La¤ont, 1996). In particular, there should not be any systematic di¤erences between cities with di¤erent forms of government (Deno and Mehay, 1987). More recent literature, however, shows that the method of selection does play a role.…”

The Fiscal Consequences of Electoral Institutions

“…Other studies conclude that reformed municipalities spend more (Sherbenou 1961;Nunn 1996;Cole 1971;French 2004). Others find a null effect (Lyons and Morgan 1977;Dye and Garcia 1978;Morgan and Pelissero 1980;Deno and Mehay 1987;Hayes and Chang 1990;Morgan and Watson 1995). 16 In states that do not officially have county governments, we use the county area, as designated by the Census of Governments.…”