A Note on the Publicness of Local Goods: Evidence from New York State Municipalities

For more than a decade now the non-publicness of goods provided by local governments has been an accepted result in the median voter demand literature. McMillan, Wilson, and Arthur (1981) found that publicness was exhausted in Ontario towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants, but that there were still...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Canadian journal of economics 1986-08, Vol.19 (3), p.568-573
Main Author: Edwards, John H.Y.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic theory
Elasticity
Elasticity of demand
Empirical evidence
Government bureaucracy
Local government
Municipal government
Municipalities
Population dynamics
Population parameters
Price elasticity
Public good
Public goods
Recreation
Towns
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Summary:For more than a decade now the non-publicness of goods provided by local governments has been an accepted result in the median voter demand literature. McMillan, Wilson, and Arthur (1981) found that publicness was exhausted in Ontario towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants, but that there were still unexploited economies to collective provision in smaller towns. Using the original Bergstrom and Goodman (1973) model and New York State data, I find that there is even less evidence of publicness in small towns than in large ones. My results call into question the McMillan, Wilson, and Arthur hypothesis.
ISSN:0008-4085
1540-5982
DOI:10.2307/135350