Central pattern generators (CPGs) are neuronal networks that control vitally important rhythmic behaviors including breathing, heartbeat, and digestion. Understanding how CPGs recover activity after their rhythmic activity is disrupted has important theoretical and practical implications. Previous experimental and modeling studies indicated that rhythm recovery after central neuromodulatory inp...

The economic effects of federalism are unclear: some papers find that federalism has strong positive effects on a number of economically relevant variables, others find negative effects. The results often crucially hinge upon the proxies for federalism used. In this paper, we critically survey the existing indicators for both federalism and fiscal decentralization. We argue that federalism is a...

— Decentralization has emerged as an important instrument of environmental and development policy in the last two decades. Presumed benefits of environmental policy decentralization depend in significant measure on broad participation in the programs that governments create to decentralize decision making related to resource management. This paper uses data from protected areas in Nepal’s Terai...

The relationship between decentralization and economic growth is generally studied from a perspective stressing universal or quasi-universal regularities across countries. That approach has generated many insights but seems to reach its limits. The paper explains why it allows contrasting positions with regard to the benefits of decentralization even among proponents of free and competitive mar...

There is a widespread sense that over the last two decades firms have been decentralizing decisions to employees further down the managerial hierarchy. Economists have developed a range of theories to account for delegation, but there is less empirical evidence, especially across countries. This has limited the ability to understand the phenomenon of decentralization. To address the empirical l...

Using a panel of international student test scores, 1980 – 2000, panel fixed effects estimates suggest that government spending decentralization is conducive to student performance. The effect does not appear to be mediated through levels of, or decentralization in, educational spending. JEL codes: C33; H2; I2, H40