An Optimal Taxation Approach to Fiscal Federalism
探讨联邦制下各级政府独立决策公共品和税收时产生的外部性问题，并简要分析中央政府如何减少分散决策的成本。
In a Federal system of government, each unit of government decides independently how much of each type of public good to provide, and what types of taxes, and which tax rates, to use in funding the public goods. In this paper we explore what types of problems can arise from this decentralized form of decision-making. In particular, we describe systematically the types of externalities that one unit of government can create for nonresidents, through both its public goods decisions and its taxation decisions. The paper also explores briefly what the central government might do to lessen the costs of decentralized decision-making.