Some fundamental difficulties that arise when you divide political authority between thousands of overlapping, quasi-independent local governments.
Tiebout (1956). A pure theory of local expenditures
Blom-Hansen, Houlberg, & Serritzlew (2014). Size, Democracy, and the Economic Costs of Running the Political System
Blom-Hansen et al. (2016). Jurisdiction Size and Local Government Policy Expenditure
Somin (2014). Foot Voting, Federalism, And Political Freedom
Penn (2004). Institutions and sorting in a model of metropolitan fragmentation
Rosen, Sam. 2017. “Atlanta’s Controversial ‘Cityhood’ Movement.” The Atlantic.
Broady, Arlinda Smith. 2018. “Drive for New Cities Began in Sandy Springs.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Berry, Christopher R. 2009. Imperfect Union: Representation and Taxation in Multilevel Governments. Cambridge University Press. (particularly chapters 1 & 2)
Payson, Julia. 2022. When Cities Lobby: How Local Governments Compete for Power in State Politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Particularly chapters 1-3.
Einstein & Kogan (2015). Pushing the City Limits Policy Responsiveness in Municipal Government
Hajnal & Trounstine (2010). Who or What Governs?
Tausanovitch & Warshaw (2014). Representation in Municipal Government
Anzia (2020). Pensions in the Trenches
Ong (2014). State-Led Urbanization in China
Spruyt (1994). Institutional selection in international relations
Chait, Jonathan. 2014. Why The Worst Governments Are Local Governments (New York Magazine)
Seven Years After Bankruptcy, Detroit Faces a New Crisis (Bloomberg, 2020)
The Night New York Saved Itself From Bankruptcy (The New Yorker, 2015)
Jensen et al. (2015). Competing for global capital or local voters?
Cai, Treisman (2005). Does Competition for Capital Discipline Governments?
Guo (2009). China’s Local Political Budget Cycles
Lu & Landry (2014). Show Me the Money Interjurisdiction Political Competition and Fiscal Extraction in China
Florida, Richard. 2018. “How Politicians Pander to Voters Using Corporate Incentives” Bloomberg CityLab.
Thompson, Derek. 2018. “Amazon’s HQ2 Spectacle Isn’t Just Shameful—It Should Be Illegal.” The Atlantic.
Perkins, Tom. 2020. “‘They Demolished My House for This?’ Residents Outraged by the Foxconn Factory That Fizzled.” The Guardian.
George, Henry. 1879. Progress and Poverty.
A nice abridged version: Brown, Harry Gunnison. 1929. Significant Paragraphs from Henry George’s Progress and Poverty. New York: Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.
An entertaining book review by Lars Doucet.
Goldstein et al. (2020). Exploitative Revenues, Law Enforcement, and the Quality of Government Service
Sances & You (2017). Who Pays for Government Descriptive Representation and Exploitative Revenue Sources
Berry (2021). Reassessing the Property Tax
Sances (2016). The Distributional Impact of Greater Responsiveness Evidence from New York Towns
McIntire, Mike, and Michael H. Keller. 2021. “The Demand for Money Behind Many Police Traffic Stops.” The New York Times. (November 1, 2021).
Johnson, Walter. 2015. “Ferguson’s Fortune 500 Company”.
Herriges, Daniel. “Rewarding Neglect and Punishing Investment in Struggling Neighborhoods.” Strong Towns, March 7, 2019.
Bradbury, John Charles (2022). “Sports Stadiums and Local Economic Activity: Evidence from Sales Tax Collections.” Journal of Urban Affairs, 1–21.
Bradbury, John Charles, Dennis Coates, and Brad R. Humphreys (2022). “The Impact of Professional Sports Franchises and Venues on Local Economies: A Comprehensive Survey.” Journal of Economic Surveys.
Siegfried & Zimbalist (2002). A Note on the Local Economic Impact of Sports Expenditures
Paulas, Rick. 2018. “Sports Stadiums Are a Bad Deal for Cities.” The Atlantic.
deMause, Neil. 2017. “Why Are Georgia Taxpayers Paying $700m for a New NFL Stadium?” The Guardian.