Government Form and Public Spending: Theory and Evidence from U.S. Municipalities

There are two main forms of government in U.S. cities: council-manager and mayor-council. This paper develops a theory of fiscal policy determination under these two forms. The theory predicts that expected public spending will be lower under mayor-council, but that either form of government could美国城市的政府主要存在两种核心治理形式：议会-经理制（council-manager）与市长-议会制（mayor-council）。本文构建了针对这两种政府形式的财政政策决定理论。该理论预测，市长-议会制下的预期公共支出水平会更低，但两种政府形式均可能