THE DETERMINANTS OF JAPANESE LOCAL-BENEFIT SEEKING

"This paper examines the determinants of the allocation of Japan's central government spending across its prefectures. Using the framework developed by Atlas et al." (American Economic Review, 85:"3, June 1995, 624-629"), "the paper examines whether over-represented Japanese prefectures receive larger real per capita transfers than under-represented prefectures. A broad concern of the paper is whether institutions matter. Per capita representation of prefectures, party affiliation, and intra-party characteristics are found to be determinants of Japan's central government transfers. The results suggest that institutions do matter." ("JEL" H3, H5, H6, H7) Copyright 1999 Western Economic Association International.