Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and the Environment

Abstract

Provision of environmental services involves spatial externalities. The costs of provision are borne at the level of provision, but the benefits are realized on a larger scale. Mismatch between the decision-making responsibilities and costs and benefits has been considered a cause for the underprovision of the services. Perrings and Gadgil (2003) suggest a number of measures to patch up the local costs and global benefits of biodiversity conservation. Intergovernmental fiscal transfers are an important instrument for internalizing the spatial externalities (Breton, 1965; Olson, 1969).