Reconsidering the Demand for Municipal Public Goods Specification : Evidence from French Municipalities

Following Bergtrom and Goodman (1973), this paper can be integrated in the set of studies that have estimated the demand for municipal public services. The main innovation in this paper is methodological as we use a Stone Geary utility function to describe the median voter preferences. Unlike previous studies, we are able to derive the local public expenditure function in a (simplified) linear expenditure system, directly from the theoretical framework. The linear expenditure system provides an estimate of the portion of the incompressible public expenditure in each municipality. Using cross sectional municipal data from France, it is found to be 30% of the total per capita expenditure. Compared to the specification generally used in the literature, linear expenditure system shows a greater sensitivity to price and income variations and reveal a greater number of significant variables.Demand for local public services, Median voter, Linear expenditure system, Nonlinear least squares

Contribution à l'écologie de quelques taxons du zooplancton de Côte d'Ivoire. 3 - Larves de décapodes et lucifer

The warm season is the abundance period of the planktonic larval stages of Decapod Crustacea and of Lucifer faxonii in Ivoirian waters. Two or three maxima occur each year during the enrichments interrupting the warm and oligotropic season: February (small upwellings), June - some years - (first rains) and September - November (flood of rivers, end of cold season). Vertical distribution follows seasonal variations and varies little among the taxons. In a general way, Decapod larvae and Lucifer inhabit superficial layers in cold season and sink down during the warm season. It allows them to follow the maximum of primary production. Lucifer faxonii is breeding almost the year long. Breeds succede at rate of 3,7 weeks approximately

Note sur l'hypothèse d'une influence de la nature géologique et pédologique des terrains côtiers sur la biomasse zooplanctonique dans le lagon de Nouvelle-Calédonie

Des récoltes de zooplancton réalisées autour de la Nouvelle-Calédonie entre 1980 et 1983 permettent de classer diverses baies selon l'importance de leur biomasse planctonique. Après avoir éliminé la variation saisonnière on peut, en partie, expliquer le classement observé par la configuration des baies (profondeur, confinement). Mais on ne rend pas compte de la richesse des eaux de Poum (nord-ouest de l'île). Une autre hypothèse est envisagée, basée sur la nature pédologique du sol des bassins versants attenants à ces baies. Ces sols fersiallitiques associés à des podzols ont, dans leur horizon superficiel, le rapport silice/alumine le plus élevé de l'île. D'autre part, le climat semi-aride de cette région induit vraisemblablement un forte teneur en silice des eaux de source. Il semble donc possible que les apports terrigènes aux baies de la région de Poum lèvent toute limitation en silice et favorisent une forte production d'algues à tests siliceux, assurant une biomasse secondaire élevée. (Résumé d'auteur

Le GEPTUD : des transformations du droit aux théories juridiques

Le Groupe d'études sur les processus de transformation du droit (GEPTUD) existe depuis 1989. Il regroupe des professeurs de la Faculté de droit de l'Université Laval auxquels se joignent des collaborateurs des facultés des sciences sociales et de philosophie ainsi que des étudiants de 2e et 3e cycles. Par les projets de ses membres et par les séminaires qu'il organise sur une base régulière, le GEPTUD est engagé dans des activités de recherche et dans un travail d approfondissement de sa problématique. L'objectif du présent article est de préciser les orientations du GEPTUD en renseignant sur la délimitation de son champ de recherche.The Task Force dealing with transformational processes in law (known in French by the abbreviation GEPTUD) has been in existence since 1989. It is composed of professors from the Laval University Faculty of Law, colleagues from the Social Sciences and Philosophy Faculties as well as masters and doctoral graduate students. Through its members' projects and the seminars that it organizes on a regular basis, GEPTUD performs research activities and in-depth investigations into its field of knowledge. The purpose of this article is to specify GEPTUD orientations by delimiting its area of research

Overlapping jurisdictions and demand for local public services: does spatial heterogeneity matter?

This paper aims to test the existence of vertical interactions in terms of public spending between overlapping local jurisdictions in France using a data set of 110 French municipalities and their corresponding departments in 2001 and 2005. To do so, we consider that demand for municipal services is conditioned by the services provided by departments. We then estimate two specifications which allow spatial heterogeneity to be modeled and which are compared with a simple spatial error specification (without spatial heterogeneity). The two estimated spatial regimes models are able to eradicate spatial autocorrelation in the error term. The estimation results show that an appropriate consideration of spatial heterogeneity can lead to new insights. The spatial error specification reveals a robust complementary demand relationship between services provided by departmental and municipal governments. However, these results are not in accord with the results produced by the spatial regime models, which provide evidence of heterogeneity with independence, complementarity or substitution between the services offered by the two overlapping jurisdictions.Local public expenditures; Overlapping jurisdictions; Spatial heterogeneity; Spatial econometrics