Weakest-link local public goods: strategic delegation in decentralization and centralization∗

We explore strategic delegation of voters when complementary local public goods, aggregated by the symmetric weakest-link technology, are provided in decentralization and centralization. We show that asymmetric access, asymmetric costs, and existence of penalty for the strictly weakest contribution can lead to conservative bias in delegation. Non-cooperative centralization is shown to reduce strategic delegation in all asymmetries. JEL Classification: H41, D7