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CENTRAL GRANTS AND LOCAL POLICY VARIATION
Author(s) -
BOYNE GEORGE A.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9299.1990.tb00755.x
Subject(s) - matching (statistics) , politics , variation (astronomy) , public economics , economics , constraint (computer aided design) , set (abstract data type) , econometrics , political science , statistics , law , physics , mathematics , astrophysics , computer science , programming language , mechanical engineering , engineering
This paper estimates the impact of central grants on local spending decisions in England in the 19%. The analysis is based on a more explicit conceptual framework and a more appropriate methodology than conventionally used to measure grant effects in ‘output’ studies' of local policy variation. A set of six hypotheses is derived from political and economic theories of grant impact. The relationship between grants and expenditure change is estimated through a TSLS (Two Stage Least Squares) regression model. The main empirical results are that grants are an important constraint on spending decisions and that different types of grants have different effects: lump sum grants are substitutive and matching grants are stimulative. The evidence also indicates that spending is influenced by party politics, service needs and the local tax base.