IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_2280.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Political Economy of Regional Integration Projects at Borders where Rich and Poor Meet: The Role of Cross-Border Shopping and Community Sorting

Author

Listed:
  • Kristof Dascher
  • Alexander Haupt

Abstract

At borders where rich and poor countries meet, services prices differ hugely. In principle, price differentials could be exploited to mutual benefit, offering improved job opportunities to the poor as well as better shopping opportunities to the rich. However, cross-border shopping is often limited by the substantial transaction costs of crossing the border. Moreover, local governments frequently fail to cut these transaction costs even where they have the opportunity to do so. In this paper, we show (i) why a majority of the local electorate often backs this outcome, (ii) how intra-country mobility affects local policy, and (iii) how (inter-) national regulations shape local decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristof Dascher & Alexander Haupt, 2008. "The Political Economy of Regional Integration Projects at Borders where Rich and Poor Meet: The Role of Cross-Border Shopping and Community Sorting," CESifo Working Paper Series 2280, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2280
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp2280.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Calabrese, Stephen & Epple, Dennis & Romer, Thomas & Sieg, Holger, 2006. "Local public good provision: Voting, peer effects, and mobility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(6-7), pages 959-981, August.
    2. Epple, Dennis & Filimon, Radu & Romer, Thomas, 1993. "Existence of voting and housing equilibrium in a system of communities with property taxes," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 585-610, November.
    3. Søren Bo Nielsen, 2001. "A Simple Model of Commodity Taxation and Cross‐border Shopping," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 103(4), pages 599-623, December.
    4. Lucas, Vander, 2004. "Cross-border shopping in a federal economy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 365-385, July.
    5. Hanson, Gordon H., 2001. "U.S.-Mexico Integration and Regional Economies: Evidence from Border-City Pairs," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 259-287, September.
    6. Bela Balassa, 1964. "The Purchasing-Power Parity Doctrine: A Reappraisal," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(6), pages 584-584.
    7. repec:hrv:faseco:4553034 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Alberto Alesina & Reza Baqir & Caroline Hoxby, 2004. "Political Jurisdictions in Heterogeneous Communities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(2), pages 348-396, April.
    9. Mansoorian, Arman & Myers, Gordon M., 1993. "Attachment to home and efficient purchases of population in a fiscal externality economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 117-132, August.
    10. Kanbur, Ravi & Keen, Michael, 1993. "Jeux Sans Frontieres: Tax Competition and Tax Coordination When Countries Differ in Size," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 877-892, September.
    11. Epple, Dennis & Filimon, Radu & Romer, Thomas, 1984. "Equilibrium among local jurisdictions: toward an integrated treatment of voting and residential choice," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 281-308, August.
    12. Westhoff, Frank, 1979. "Policy inferences from community choice models: A caution," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 535-549, October.
    13. Hanson, Gordon H., 1996. "Economic integration, intraindustry trade, and frontier regions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 941-949, April.
    14. Edward P. Lazear & Ulrike Malmendier & Roberto A. Weber, 2012. "Sorting in Experiments with Application to Social Preferences," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 136-163, January.
    15. Nielsen, Soren Bo, 2002. "Cross-border shopping from small to large countries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 309-313, November.
    16. Nico A. Hansen & Anke S. Kessler, 2001. "The Political Geography of Tax H(e)avens and Tax Hells," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1103-1115, September.
    17. Dennis Epple & Thomas Romer & Holger Sieg, 2001. "Interjurisdictional Sorting and Majority Rule: An Empirical Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(6), pages 1437-1465, November.
    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. Dascher, Kristof & Haupt, Alexander, 2011. "The political economy of regional integration projects at borders where poor and rich meet: The role of cross-border shopping and community sorting," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 148-164, January.
    2. Kristof Dascher, 2011. "Beggar Thy Neighbour?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 12(2), pages 132-150, May.
    3. Sklias, Pantelis & Tsampra, Maria, 2012. "Towards an analytical framework of regional integration in Western Balkans," MPRA Paper 36504, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Pantelis Sklias, 2011. "The political economy of regional integration in the Western Balkans," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 4(3), pages 21-37, December.

    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. Dascher, Kristof & Haupt, Alexander, 2011. "The political economy of regional integration projects at borders where poor and rich meet: The role of cross-border shopping and community sorting," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 148-164, January.
    2. Sigrid Roehrs & David Stadelmann, 2010. "Mobility and local income redistribution," Working Papers 2010/4, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    3. Brülhart, Marius & Bucovetsky, Sam & Schmidheiny, Kurt, 2015. "Taxes in Cities," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 1123-1196, Elsevier.
    4. Kessler, Anke S. & Lulfesmann, Christoph, 2005. "Tiebout and redistribution in a model of residential and political choice," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 501-528, February.
    5. Sigrid Röhrs & David Stadelmann, 2014. "Homeownership, Mobility, And Local Income Redistribution," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(4), pages 569-605, August.
    6. Kurt Schmidheiny, 2002. "Income Stratifcation in Multi-Community Models," Diskussionsschriften dp0215, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    7. Holmes, Thomas J. & Sieg, Holger, 2015. "Structural Estimation in Urban Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 69-114, Elsevier.
    8. Aiura, Hiroshi & Ogawa, Hikaru, 2013. "Unit tax versus ad valorem tax: A tax competition model with cross-border shopping," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 30-38.
    9. Leal, Andrés & López-Laborda, Julio & Rodrigo, Fernando, 2009. "Prices, taxes and automotive fuel cross-border shopping," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 225-234.
    10. Sigrid Roehrs & David Stadelmann, 2010. "Mobility and local income redistribution," Working Papers 2010/4, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    11. Jean Gabszewicz & Ornella Tarola & Skerdilajda Zanaj, 2016. "Migration, wages and income taxes," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(3), pages 434-453, June.
    12. Jan Jacobs & Jenny Ligthart & Hendrik Vrijburg, 2010. "Consumption tax competition among governments: Evidence from the United States," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 17(3), pages 271-294, June.
    13. Patrick Bayer & Robert McMillan & Kim Rueben, 2004. "An Equilibrium Model of Sorting in an Urban Housing Market," NBER Working Papers 10865, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Patrick Bayer & Stephen L. Ross, 2006. "Identifying Individual and Group Effects in the Presence of Sorting: A Neighborhood Effects Application," Working papers 2006-13, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2009.
    15. Braid, Ralph M., 2013. "State and local tax competition in a spatial model with sales taxes and residential property taxes," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 57-67.
    16. Yoskowitz, David W. & Pisani, Michael J., 2007. "Risk and reward: Currency substitution and acceptance of the Mexican peso by firms in the United States southern frontier," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 422-434, July.
    17. Patrick Bayer & Robert McMillan & Kim Rueben, 2004. "Residential Segregation in General Equilibrium," Working Papers 885, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    18. Gravel, Nicolas & Oddou, Rémy, 2014. "The segregative properties of endogenous jurisdiction formation with a land market," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 15-27.
    19. Hansen, Nico A. & Kessler, Anke S., 2001. "(Non-)Existence of Equilibria in Multicommunity Models," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 418-435, November.
    20. Yannis M. Ioannides, 2010. "Neighborhood Effects and Housing," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0747, Department of Economics, Tufts University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    cross-border shopping; community sorting; regional integration; voting; federalism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General
    • R20 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - General

    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:ces:ceswps:_2280. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.