The Buck Stops Where? Federalism, Uncertainty, and Investment in the Brazilian Water and Sanitation Sector

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kresch, Evan Plous
• 署名单位: University System of Ohio; Oberlin College
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20180327
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 374-401
• 关键词: PROPERTY-RIGHTS; electoral accountability; economic-development; state capacity; child health; public-goods; decentralization; COMPETITION; infrastructure; Jurisdictions

摘要

This paper documents how regulatory uncertainty may undermine public service when different levels of government share a mandate on public service provision. I examine the Brazilian water and sanitation sector, which presents a natural experiment of shared provision between state and municipal companies. Using a difference-in-differences framework, I study a legal reform that clarified the relationship between municipal and state providers and eliminated any takeover threat by state companies. I find that after the reform, municipal companies almost doubled their total system investment, leading to significant increases in system access and decreases in child mortality.