The Geography of Public Finance and Government Decentralisation
Studies of how the spatial patterns of 'need' for public expenditure for people and businesses, relate to service costs and resources to supply them. How resource - need imbalances can be overcome by intergovernmental grants and transfers, and how this influences revenue burdens and benefit incidence. Bennett's (1980) The Geography of Public Finance: Welfare under fixed federation and local government finance (Methuen) sparked a series of studies in geography and related disciplines. Detailed studies of local taxes on business have produced the benchmarks for incidence assessment of this field (see Bennett and Krebs, G. (1986) Local Business Taxes in Britain and Germany (Nomos)).
During the reform process in central Europe since 1990, the geography of public finance became a key focus for restructuring of fiscal relations between local, regional and national governments. Through Bennett's period as chair of the IGU Commission on Public Policy (IGU CPP) a series of major contributions to the reform debate were made which helped to stimulate maximum decentralisation to the lower tiers of government (e.g., Bennett, ed., 1993) Local Government in the New Europe (Bellaven); Bennett, ed., 1989, Territory and Administration in Europe (Frances Pinter)).
Subsequent debate has generalised the government decentralisation thesis to demonstrate its interrelations with market reforms, again through the IGU CPP as a vehicle for developing theory and practical understanding e.g. Bennett, ed., 1990, Decentralisation, local government and markets (Clarendon Press); Bennett, ed., 1994; Local Government and Market decentralisation: experiences in industrialised, developing and former Eastern Bloc Countries (UN University Press)).
Current research focuses on how intergovernmental finance influences local and regional economic development in the UK and EU countries.