Optimal Community Composition and the Provision of Local Public Goods

这个项目的论点是，地方公共财政理论是基于对地方服务的错误指定的“生产函数”--该函数忽略了社区特征在决定公共产出水平方面所起的重要作用。这一错误规范既有重要的积极意义，也有规范意义。关于价格和收入弹性的有偏估计的积极影响在文献中一直是一些关注的主题。但规范方面的影响在很大程度上被忽视了。特别是，蒂布特模式的核心结果，即最优司法系统的特点是社区对当地服务的需求是一致的，在一个社区构成是当地公共产品产出的重要决定因素的世界里，这种结果不再成立。在社区构成影响地方公共产出的背景下，本研究发展了地方财政的一般理论。这里的重点是确定地方司法机构的最佳组成如何取决于个人在提供地方公共产品方面的相互作用。这个项目从计量经济学的角度考察公共安全的生产函数。它利用现有的数据集来探索社区构成和公共安全水平之间的关系的形式。最后，使用特定的效用函数和生产函数进行了一系列模拟研究，以考察社区组成在地方服务生产中起重要作用的地方司法管辖区的最优结构。

It is the contention of this project that the theory of local public finance is based on a misspecified "production function" for local services--one that omits the important role that community characteristics play in determining levels of public output. This misspecification has both important positive and normative implications. The positive implications concerning biased estimates of price and income elasticities have been the subject of some attention in the literature. But the normative implications have been largely ignored. In particular, the central results of the Tiebout model, namely that an optimal system of jurisdiction is characterized by communities that are homogeneous in the demand for local services, no longer holds in a world in which community composition is an important determinant of outputs of local public goods. This study develops a general theory of local finance in a setting where community composition influences local public outputs. The focus here is determining how the optimal composition of local jurisdictions depends on the interaction of individuals in the provision of local public goods. This project investigates in econometric terms the production function of public safety. It uses existing data sets to explore the form of the relationship between community composition and the levels of public safety. Finally, a series of simulation studies are made using specific utility and production functions to examine the optimal structure of local jurisdictions where community composition matters in the production of local services.