The Local Autonomy Index (LAI)

Ladner, Andreas; Keuffer, Nicolas; Baldersheim, Harald; Hlepas, Nikos; Swianiewicz, Paweł; Steyvers, Kristof; Navarro, Carmen

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-95642-8_9

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Despite Finland being a unitary country in terms of government, the autonomy of local governments is guaranteed by the Constitution; hence, local governments are relatively empowered to make decisions regarding local development (Ladner et al 2015;Lidström 1999). A wide range of activities (e.g.…”

Section: The Case Of Finlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing Local Sustainability: Strategic Thinking in the Making

Kettunen

Heino

Rasinkangas

et al. 2020

SJPA

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Local governments are key actors in sustainable development. However, comprehensive achievements in relation to sustainability remain limited, even though sustainable development has been on the agenda for decades. Achieving sustainability requires future-oriented thinking, proper long-term development strategies, and concrete action. Developing strategy is not enough to ensure achievement, and local governments should therefore engage in strategic thinking as a method of promoting sustainability at the local level. Based on data collected through a survey of 113 Finnish municipalities, this research used statistical methods to empirically analyse the extent to which the municipalities employed strategic thinking. The results showed that the municipalities which performed well in various aspects of strategic thinking were also more engaged in sustainability issues than those municipalities that were not strategically oriented.

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Section: The Case Of Finlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing Local Sustainability: Strategic Thinking in the Making

Kettunen

Heino

Rasinkangas

et al. 2020

SJPA

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“…Although municipalities of both countries enjoy considerable autonomy, there are differences. Swiss municipalities have exceptional freedom with regard to their administrative and political organization and fiscal autonomy (Ladner, Keuffer, & Baldersheim, 2015). For instance, they can set up their own support instruments for renewables.…”

Section: Literature Review and Empirical Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Cooperatives and Municipalities in Local Energy Governance Arrangements in Switzerland and Germany

Schmid

Meister

Klagge

et al. 2019

The Journal of Environment & Development

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Participation of citizens in local energy decisions is increasingly recognized as helpful for a successful decentralized energy transition. In this article, we focus on energy cooperatives in which private individuals jointly develop facilities to generate energy from renewable sources, thus involving citizens both politically and economically. Focusing on Switzerland and Germany, we show that there is a strong linkage between such cooperatives and municipalities, characterized by collaboration and support, and that the cooperatives are well suited as collaborating partners. We also show that federalist structures are most suited for such local arrangements as municipalities must have leeway to support cooperatives in a targeted manner and to compensate for shortcomings in the energy policy of superordinate governmental levels. Based on these results, we suggest that local governments should be given sufficient financial capacities and autonomy to strengthen implementation of a decentralized energy transition that involves citizens. However, we also recognize that municipal structures alone are often insufficient and that superordinate policies, especially national subsidies, remain essential. Hence, policies at the municipal and national levels should take greater account of citizen initiatives, such as energy cooperatives, which exhibit various noncommodifiable advantages relevant to the energy transition.

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“…For this reason, in the current study, we use the LAI, which was constructed by a panel of experts under the auspices of the European Commission, and which is available in annual basis from 1990 to 2014 (Ladner, Keuffer, and Baldersheim 2015) to measure the degree of local autonomy within the European Union. This measure of decentralization goes beyond the share of funds managed by local authorities and captures the extent to which local authorities can decide on how to spend these funds.…”

Section: The Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographic Cross‐Sectional Fiscal Spending Multipliers and the Role of Local Autonomy: Evidence from European Regions

Brüeckner¹,

Pappa²,

Valentinyi³

2022

J of Money Credit Banking

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Using a panel of 268 European regions during 1990–2014, we document that the degree of local government's autonomy, measured with the “Local Autonomy Index,” has a significant positive effect on the fiscal spending multiplier. The estimated geographic cross‐sectional fiscal spending multiplier is on average close to zero in countries with the lowest degree of local autonomy, and around unity in countries with the highest degree of local autonomy. Multipliers are state‐dependent: larger when gross domestic product is below trend and when there is slack in the labor market; in those states, local autonomy has a particularly large positive effect on the multiplier. To interpret the empirical findings, we build a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model where both local and central government spending contribute to a public good that enhances private labor productivity. Local governments are more efficient in producing the public good and the multiplier is higher in countries where local government spending has a larger share in the production of the public good.

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The Local Autonomy Index (LAI)

Cited by 9 publications

References 8 publications

Addressing Local Sustainability: Strategic Thinking in the Making

Addressing Local Sustainability: Strategic Thinking in the Making

Energy Cooperatives and Municipalities in Local Energy Governance Arrangements in Switzerland and Germany

Geographic Cross‐Sectional Fiscal Spending Multipliers and the Role of Local Autonomy: Evidence from European Regions

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