Do countries with federal political structures develop more or less effective policies
compared to those with unitary political structures? We seek to resolve this long-standing
theoretical debate by arguing that the extent to which federalist countries reap the benefits or
suffer the costs of giving sub-national units greater autonomy depends on whether a given
policy is itself more optimally implemented homogenously or heterogeneously across
different regions. Using both statistical and qualitative case study methods, we analyse …