ORCID Profile
0000-0003-3579-5758
Current Organisation
University of Newcastle Australia
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 18-01-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-02-2019
DOI: 10.1111/PADM.12575
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-11-2019
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-12-2022
Abstract: Local government amalgamations, mostly aimed at improving financial sustainability, remain a strongly contested public policy option. Proponents of amalgamation tend to emphasise the advantages of scale and plan around population size targets. By contrast, some scholars note the importance of understanding the needs and tastes of residents for local public services and stress the dangers of amalgamation dominated by population size considerations alone. In this paper, we conduct a robust empirical investigation of a recent amalgamation program dominated by population size considerations. Our results suggest that local government boundaries constructed principally to secure scale benefits have largely failed to deliver on the pecuniary promise of its public policy proponents. We conclude by offering some central public policy recommendations aimed at ensuring that future amalgamation programs might be more successful.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-08-2020
Abstract: Decentralised government – such as local government – allows for better tailoring of goods and services and hence higher levels of economic welfare. However, inequities in wealth can mean that some local governments experience difficulty trying to provide for the needs of their citizens. To try to mitigate these disparities, most systems of local government feature a program of untied equalisation grant transfers. However, proponents of equalisation grants schemes have struggled to provide a convincing moral justification for the practice: often scholars resort to rather unconvincing appeals to Pigou's famous normative dictum that equals should be treated equally. We propose that the natural law Principle of Subsidiarity is a more appropriate and robust moral justification for equalisation grant transfers. Moreover, we show how adoption of a subsidiarity justification would lead to improved grants practice that could be expected to avoid some of the serious problems that plague existing equalisation grant schemes.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-10-2018
No related grants have been discovered for Joseph Drew.