Local Determinants of Municipal Public Finance:The Case of Quebec in 2018

This article studies the case of local governments in the province of Quebec to understand the determinants of local public finance. First, the overall relationship (U shaped) between the size of jurisdictions and local public expenditure per capita is broken down by type of expenditure with different profiles. Moreover, the determinants of overall resources as well as types of resources (e.g., property tax, fees, grants) and expenditure (e.g., security, transportation) are explored: precise and exhaustive databases at the municipality level allow testing of the impact of size, inter-municipal collaboration, tax potential, and economic activity, as well as social and material characteristics of the citizens.