An empirical study of matching grants: the `cap on CAP'

Funding mechanisms for social expenditures are currently being reformed in many countries. While the theoretical implications of these changes are often easily identified, their empirical magnitude is not always as clear. For example, in federal systems social expenditure is often funded by matching grants, and estimates of the effect of varying matching rates on expenditures by sub-national governments vary widely. The ambiguity is due in part …