What happens to general-purpose local government spending for service provision when a special district enters the public service market? Theoretically, special districts can act either as complements by supplementing existing service provision spending or as substitutes by supplanting current service provision spending. We find a substitution effect using fixed effects regression on urban counties in the United States from 1972 to 2017. Special districts replace spending for public service provision by county governments; however, we find no similar result for municipal governments. But the results are nuanced—findings are confined mainly to public services that tend to cover large land areas, like fire protection, sewerage, and solid waste management. Furthermore, we find evidence that day-to-day operations drive observed substitution, and that county size is an important factor depending on the functional service area.

中文翻译：

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特区是战略互补还是战略替代？

当特区进入公共服务市场时，地方政府用于提供服务的一般用途支出会发生什么变化？理论上，特区既可以通过补充现有的服务供应支出作为补充，也可以通过取代当前的服务供应支出作为替代品。我们使用固定效应回归发现了 1972 年至 2017 年美国城市县的替代效应。特区取代县政府提供公共服务的支出；然而，我们发现市政府没有类似的结果。但结果是微妙的——调查结果主要局限于往往覆盖大片土地的公共服务，如消防、污水处理和固体废物管理。此外，我们发现日常操作推动观察到的替换的证据，