This paper analyzes municipal expenditures in the light of horizontal fiscal interactions. I investigate total expenditures and a set of non-earmarked expenditure subcategories in the largest German federal state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The empirical analysis is based on a Spatial Durbin Model in a panel for the years 2009-2015. Using a two-regime spatial matrix, I also examine the impact of agglomeration on the intensity of public expenditure interactions, thus testing the hypothesis that an agglomerated region can decrease the amount of public goods without losing mobile factors to the periphery. The findings indicate that significant municipal expenditure interaction effects do exist. The reaction functions also vary for different expenditure subcategories. Unlike spillover effects and fiscal competition, yardstick competition is an insignificant source of potential interactions. Expenditure interaction is fiercer if there is less agglomeration in a municipality. Urbanized and populous municipalities appear to benefit from agglomeration economies, a fact that enables them to spend less. Robustness checks confirm the findings.

This paper analyzes municipal expenditures in the light of horizontal fiscal interactions. I investigate total expenditures and a set of non-earmarked expenditure subcategories in the largest German federal state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The empirical analysis is based on a Spatial Durbin Model in a panel for the years 2009-2015. Using a two-regime spatial matrix, I also examine the impact of agglomeration on the intensity of public expenditure interactions, thus testing the hypothesis that an agglomerated region can decrease the amount of public goods without losing mobile factors to the periphery. The findings indicate that significant municipal expenditure interaction effects do exist. The reaction functions also vary for different expenditure subcategories. Unlike spillover effects and fiscal competition, yardstick competition is an insignificant source of potential interactions. Expenditure interaction is fiercer if there is less agglomeration in a municipality. Urbanized and populous municipalities appear to benefit from agglomeration economies, a fact that enables them to spend less. Robustness checks confirm the findings.

Kleine regionale Flughäfen leiden oft unter begrenzter Nachfrage sodass sie ihre Kosten nicht decken können. Die Frage ist wie solche Flughäfen effizient strukturiert, bewirtschaftet und möglicherweise finanziell unterstützt werden können. Viele solcher Flughäfen werden einzeln betrieben und erhalten direkte lokale oder nationale Subventionen, während andere von den Quersubventionen leben. Die Dissertation befasst sich zuerst mit der Abschätzung der Effizienz von 85 regionalen europäischen Flughäfen (2002-2009) durch Anwendung der „Data Envelopment Analysis“. Die Schätzungen zeigen, dass die potenziellen Einsparungen 50 Prozent und gesteigerten Einnahmemöglichkeiten 25 Prozent betragen. Die Zugehörigkeit zu einem Flughafensystem reduziert die Effizienz um 5 Prozent. Das durchschnittliche Break-Even Passagieraufkommen hat sich im letzten Jahrzehnt mit 464.000 Passagiere mehr als verdoppelt. Die Flughäfen hätten ihre Kosten mit allein 166.000 Passagiere decken können, wären sie effizient betrieben worden. Der zweite Teil beschäftigt sich mit einem Vergleich der Flughäfen von AENA und DHMI (2009-2011). Eine „Russell measure“ der DEA zeigt, dass die Mehrheit der Flughäfen unter zunehmenden Skalenerträge arbeitet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen höhere durchschnittliche Effizienz der spanischen Flughäfen. Aber ein verstärkte privates Engagement steigert die Effizienz in den türkischen Flughäfen. Wir schlagen verschiedene wirtschaftspolitische Optionen vor um die Effizienz zu verbessern, wie zum Beispiel die Dezentralisierung von Flughafen-Management und die Verbesserung des Flughafennetzes durch die Schließung ineffizienter Flughäfen. Im letzten Teil wird eine räumliche Regressionsmethode verwendet um verschiedene Hypothesen zu testen. Die Ergebnisse von subventionierten französischen und norwegischen Flughäfen zeigen eine negative Auswirkung von Subventionen auf Kosteneffizienz der Flughäfen. Darüber hinaus wird die Bedeutung von Skaleneffekten veranschaulicht. / Small and regional airports often have insufficient revenues to cover their costs. The question is how such airports could be efficiently structured, managed and financially supported. Some airports are operated individually and receive direct subsidies from the local and federal governments. Others survive through cross-subsidizations. This dissertation first deals with the efficiency of 85 small regional European airports for the years 2002-2009 by applying a data envelopment analysis. Estimates show the potential savings and revenue opportunities to be 50 percent and 25 percent respectively. Belonging to an airport system reduces efficiency by about 5 percent. The average break-even passenger throughput over the last decade more than doubled to 464 thousand passengers. However airports behaving efficiently could have covered their operational costs with a mere 166 thousand passengers annually. The second part addresses the comparison of airports belonging to AENA and DHMI for the years between 2009 and 2011. The majority of airports operate under increasing returns to scale. A Russell measure of data envelopment analysis is implemented. Results indicate higher average efficiency levels at Spanish airports, but private involvement enhances efficiency at Turkish ones. Certain policy options including a greater decentralization of airport management and the restructuring of the airport network (by closing some inefficient airports) should be considered to increase the airport systems’ efficiency. In the final part of the dissertation, we have studied how the airport specific characteristics drive the unit costs. In order to capture the spatial interdependence of airport costs, a spatial regression methodology is applied. Two separate datasets of subsidized French and Norwegian airports are used to test various hypotheses. The results show a negative effect of subsidies on airport cost efficiency. Furthermore, the significance of scale economies is illustrated.