IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v145y2010i1p181-195.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nation states vs. united empire: Effects of political competition on economic growth

Author

Listed:
  • Angus Chu

Abstract

Is the European nation-state system more favorable to economic growth than the united-empire system in ancient China? This paper develops an endogenous-growth model to analyze the conditions under which economic growth is higher under political fragmentation than political unification. Under political unification, the economy is vulnerable to excessive Leviathan taxation and the costs of unifying heterogeneous populations. Under political fragmentation, the competing rulers are constrained in taxation but spend excessively on military defense. If and only if the heterogeneity costs are sufficiently high relative to the mobility cost of citizens or equilibrium defense spending, then political fragmentation would be more favorable to growth than political unification. When the political regime is endogenously chosen by rulers, they do not always choose the growth-maximizing regime. In particular, there exists a range of values for the heterogeneity costs, in which political fragmentation is more favorable to growth but the rulers prefer political unification.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Angus Chu, 2010. "Nation states vs. united empire: Effects of political competition on economic growth," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 181-195, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:145:y:2010:i:1:p:181-195
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-009-9560-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11127-009-9560-6
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11127-009-9560-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rauscher, Michael, 1998. "Leviathan and Competition among Jurisdictions: The Case of Benefit Taxation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 59-67, July.
    2. Edwards, Jeremy & Keen, Michael, 1996. "Tax competition and Leviathan," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 113-134, January.
    3. Pohjola, Matti, 1983. "Nash and stackelberg solutions in a differential game model of capitalism," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 173-186, September.
    4. Cem Karayalçin, 2008. "Divided We Stand, United We Fall: The Hume-North-Jones Mechanism For The Rise Of Europe," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(3), pages 973-997, August.
    5. Jody Overland & Kenneth Simons & Michael Spagat, 2005. "Political instability and growth in dictatorships," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 445-470, December.
    6. Pohjola, Matti, 1983. "Workers' investment funds and the dynamic inefficiency of capitalism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 271-279, March.
    7. Xie, Danyang, 1997. "On Time Inconsistency: A Technical Issue in Stackelberg Differential Games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 412-430, October.
    8. Haufler,Andreas, 2008. "Taxation in a Global Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521047593, January.
    9. Grossman, Herschel I. & Noh, Suk Jae, 1994. "Proprietary public finance and economic welfare," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 187-204, February.
    10. Dockner,Engelbert J. & Jorgensen,Steffen & Long,Ngo Van & Sorger,Gerhard, 2000. "Differential Games in Economics and Management Science," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521637329, January.
    11. Cellini, Roberto & Lambertini, Luca, 1998. "A Dynamic Model of Differentiated Oligopoly with Capital Accumulation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 145-155, November.
    12. Azam Chaudhry & Phillip Garner, 2006. "Political Competition Between Countries and Economic Growth," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(4), pages 666-682, November.
    13. Daron Acemoglu, 2007. "Introduction to Modern Economic Growth," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000001721, UCLA Department of Economics.
    14. Cellini, Roberto & Lambertini, Luca, 2002. "A differential game approach to investment in product differentiation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 51-62, November.
    15. Peter Bernholz & Roland Vaubel (ed.), 2004. "Political Competition, Innovation and Growth in the History of Asian Civilizations," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3505.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kenneth S. Chan & Jean-Pierre Laffargue, 2014. "The Growth and Decline of the Modern Sector and the Merchant Class in Imperial China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 13-28, February.
    2. Stephen Ansolabehere & M. Socorro Puy, 2020. "Constitutions, Federalism, and National Integration," Working Papers 2020-04, Universidad de Málaga, Department of Economic Theory, Málaga Economic Theory Research Center.
    3. Randall Holcombe & DeEdgra Williams, 2011. "The cartelization of local governments," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 65-74, October.
    4. Jesús Fernández-Villaverde & Mark Koyama & Youhong Lin & Tuan-Hwee Sng, 2023. "The Fractured-Land Hypothesis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(2), pages 1173-1231.
    5. Chu, Angus C. & Furukawa, Yuichi & Wang, Xilin, 2022. "Rent-seeking government and endogenous takeoff in a Schumpeterian economy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Chu, Angus & Peretto, Pietro & Furukawa, Yuichi, 2023. "Evolution from political fragmentation to a unified empire in a Malthusian economy," MPRA Paper 118253, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Chu, Angus C. & Peretto, Pietro F. & Furukawa, Yuichi, 2024. "Political fragmentation versus a unified empire in a Malthusian economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 284-293.
    8. Chu, Angus C. & Kou, Zonglai & Wang, Xilin, 2022. "An economic analysis of political meritocracy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    9. Ansolabehere, Stephen & Puy, M. Socorro, 2022. "Constitutions, federalism, and national integration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chu, Angus C. & Yang, C.C., 2012. "Fiscal centralization versus decentralization: Growth and welfare effects of spillovers, Leviathan taxation, and capital mobility," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 177-188.
    2. Zeynep Burcu BULUT-ÇEVİK, 2020. "Fiscal Decentralization with a Redistribution Rule vs. Fiscal Centralization," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 28(44).
    3. Kenneth S. Chan & Jean-Pierre Laffargue, 2014. "The Growth and Decline of the Modern Sector and the Merchant Class in Imperial China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 13-28, February.
    4. Luca Lambertini & Andrea Mantovani, 2010. "Process and product innovation: A differential game approach to product life cycle," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 6(2), pages 227-252, June.
    5. Baldini, Massimo & Lambertini, Luca, 2011. "Profit taxation and capital accumulation in a dynamic oligopoly model," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 13-18, January.
    6. Ihori, Toshihiro & Yang, C.C., 2009. "Interregional tax competition and intraregional political competition: The optimal provision of public goods under representative democracy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 210-217, November.
    7. Roberto Cellini & Luca Lambertini, 2004. "Private And Social Incentives Towards Investment In Product Differentiation," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(04), pages 493-508.
    8. Toshihiro Ihori & C. C. Yang, 2008. "Interregional Tax Competition and Intraregional Political Competition: The Optimal Provision of Public Goods," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-553, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    9. R. Cellini & L. Lambertini & G. Leitmann, 2005. "Degenerate Feedback and Time Consistency in Dynamic Games," Working Papers 535, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    10. Zodrow, George R, 2003. "Tax Competition and Tax Coordination in the European Union," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(6), pages 651-671, November.
    11. Luca Lambertini & Arsen Palestini & Alessandro Tampieri, 2016. "CSR in an Asymmetric Duopoly with Environmental Externality," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 236-252, July.
    12. Wallace E. Oates & Wallace E. Oates, 2004. "Fiscal Competition and European Union: Contrasting Perspectives," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 10, pages 182-194, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Günther Rehme, 2023. "Capital depreciation allowances, redistributive taxation, and economic growth," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(1), pages 168-195, February.
    14. Steve Billon, 2023. "Tax competition, public input, and market power," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(3), pages 615-623, June.
    15. Tommaso Nannicini & Roberto Ricciuti, 2010. "Autocratic Transitions and Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 2967, CESifo.
    16. Roberto Cellini & Luca Lambertini, 2011. "R&D Incentives Under Bertrand Competition: A Differential Game," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 62(3), pages 387-400, September.
    17. R. Cellini & L. Lambertini & G. Leitmann, 2004. "Perfect Uncontrollable Differential Games," Working Papers 509, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    18. Rupayan Pal & Ajay Sharma, 2011. "Political competition and leadership in tax competition," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2011-024, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    19. Wilson, John Douglas & Wildasin, David E., 2004. "Capital tax competition: bane or boon," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 1065-1091, June.
    20. Yutao Han & Patrice Pieretti & Benteng Zou, 2017. "On The Desirability Of Tax Coordination When Countries Compete In Taxes And Infrastructure," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(2), pages 682-694, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic growth; Leviathan taxation; Interstate competition; Political fragmentation; H20; H56; O41; O43;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:145:y:2010:i:1:p:181-195. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.