The Effects of Fiscal Decentralization on the Size of Government: A Meta‐Analysis

This study examines the effects of decentralization on the size and scope of government. I use meta‐regression analysis in this article to elucidate the impact of differences in study design on study findings. The results indicate that the study's unit of analysis and choice of decentralization measure impact estimates of the effect of decentralization on government size. In particular, studies utilizing the local unit of analysis and federalism measure of decentralization are more likely to find that government shrinks as decentralization increases while studies utilizing the fragmentation measure appear more likely to find the opposite result.