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Ageing Municipalities, Gerontocracy and Fiscal Competition

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  • Anna Montén
  • Marcel Thum

Abstract

We develop a simple model of fiscal competition among ageing municipalities. When ageing advances, gerontocracies and social planners gradually substitute publicly provided goods aimed at the mobile young population for publicly provided goods for the elderly. This substitution process does not only depend on the ageing itself but also on crowding effects and on the regional distribution of the elderly population. We show that fiscal competition prevents the exploitation of the young. When the share of the elderly is sufficiently large, the utility of the young is even higher in gerontocracies than in welfare maximizing societies. Due to fiscal competition, the gerontocracies will provide even more of the publicly provided good for the young than the social planner.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Montén & Marcel Thum, 2008. "Ageing Municipalities, Gerontocracy and Fiscal Competition," CESifo Working Paper Series 2469, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2469
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    Cited by:

    1. Tadashi Morita & Yasuhiro Sato & Kazuhiro Yamamoto, 2020. "Demographics and competition for capital in political economy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(4), pages 865-889, August.
    2. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Maennig, Wolfgang & Mueller, Steffen Q., 2022. "The generation gap in direct democracy: Age vs. cohort effects," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Tim Krieger & Jens Ruhose, 2013. "Honey, I shrunk the kids’ benefits—revisiting intergenerational conflict in OECD countries," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 115-143, October.
    4. Michael Berlemann & Marco Oestmann & Marcel Thum, 2014. "Demographic change and bank profitability: empirical evidence from German savings banks," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 79-94, January.
    5. Anna Montén & Christian Thater, 2011. "Determinants of Efficiency in Child-Care Provision," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 67(4), pages 378-403, December.
    6. Baskaran, Thushyanthan & Hessami, Zohal & Schirner, Sebastian, 2024. "Young versus Old Politicians in Local Politics," IZA Discussion Papers 17009, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Sørensen, Rune J., 2013. "Does aging affect preferences for welfare spending? A study of peoples' spending preferences in 22 countries, 1985–2006," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 259-271.
    8. Montén, Anna & Thum, Marcel, 2010. "Ageing municipalities, gerontocracy and fiscal competition," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 235-247, June.
    9. Filip Chybalski, 2022. "Intergenerational income distribution before and after the great recession: winners and losers," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 49(3), pages 311-327, September.
    10. Schaltegger, Christoph A. & Somogyi, Frank & Sturm, Jan-Egbert, 2011. "Tax competition and income sorting: Evidence from the Zurich metropolitan area," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 455-470, September.
    11. Hagist, Christian & Vatter, Johannes, 2009. "Measuring fiscal sustainability on the municipal level: A German case study," FZG Discussion Papers 35, University of Freiburg, Research Center for Generational Contracts (FZG).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    demographic change; fiscal competition; publicly provided goods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General

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