TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sigman,Hilary
TI  - Decentralization and Environmental Quality: An International Analysis of Water Pollution
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13098
PY  - 2007
Y2  - May 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13098
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13098.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Hilary Sigman
Department of Economics
Rutgers University
75 Hamilton Street
New Brunswick, NJ  08901-1248
Fax: 732/932-7416
E-Mail: sigman@econ.rutgers.edu
AB  - The normative literature on decentralization of public goods provision   has many testable empirical implications. This paper explores some of these implications by looking at the relationship between decentralization and an environmental public good, water quality in rivers at monitoring stations around the world. It examines pollution levels and interjurisdictional variation in these levels for both a local and a regional pollutant.  When fixed effects are included, greater decentralization is associated with higher levels of the regional pollutant only, suggesting interjurisdictional free riding. Federal countries exhibit greater interjurisdictional variation in both pollutants, consistent with the traditional view that decentralization allows policies more tailored to local conditions.
ER  -