The impact of central places on spatial spending patterns: evidence from Flemish local government cultural expenditures ; Der Einfluss ‘Zentraler Orte’ auf räumliche Ausgabenmuster: eine empirische Studie zu den kommunalen Ausgaben für Kultur in Flandern

Governments often see it as their responsibility to support cultural life and at times spend a significant amount of resources in the pursuit of this goal. The present paper analyses whether and how municipalities influence each other in this decision to spend resources on the arts (using data on local government cultural spending in 304 Flemish municipalities in 2002). Following ‘central place theory’, the focal point of the analysis is the idea that – especially for cultural expenditures – large municipalities (and, specifically, ‘central places’) may affect their neighbours’ behaviour diffe... Mehr ...