Essays on strategic fiscal policy in Flemish municipalities

This dissertation is about fiscal policy in Flemish municipalities in general and focuses on strategic policy in particular. As an introduction to local fiscal policy, we investigated the simultaneous role of partisan effects, of fragmentation, of interaction dynamics, of electoral cycles and of fiscal illusion effects on the Flemish local income tax rate and local property tax rate. Even though policymakers’ fiscal policy choices are assumed to bring about their re-election, policymakers may fail to achieve this aim. Aware of this failure, policymakers may change their policy from “opportunis... Mehr ...