IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_366.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Much Fiscal Equalisation?

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Fenge
  • Jakob von Weizsäcker

Abstract

We treat fiscal equalisation as an insurance device against regional tax revenue variance. This insurance comes at the price of a moral hazard: regional government will spend too little effort on the development of the local tax base. In a simple bargaining model with two identical regions we show that less than total fiscal equalisation combined with lump sum transfers will be optimal. Taking a step back to the constitutional bargaining behind some veil of ignorance which determines the fallback position for later negotiations, we show that writing total fiscal equalisation into the constitution will be optimal.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Fenge & Jakob von Weizsäcker, 2000. "How Much Fiscal Equalisation?," CESifo Working Paper Series 366, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_366
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo_wp366.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lockwood, Ben, 1999. "Inter-regional insurance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 1-37, April.
    2. Huber, Bernd & Lichtblau, Karl, 1998. "Konfiskatorischer Finanzausgleich verlangt eine Reform," Wirtschaftsdienst – Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik (1949 - 2007), ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 78(3), pages 142-147.
    3. Huber, Bernd & Lichtblau, Karl, 1998. "Konfiskatorischer Finanzausgleich verlangt eine Reform," Munich Reprints in Economics 19398, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    4. Bernd Huber & Christian Baretti & Karl Lichtblau, 2000. "A Tax on Tax Revenue. The Incentive Effects of Equalizing Transfers: Evidence from Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 333, CESifo.
    5. Michael Smart, 1998. "Taxation and Deadweight Loss in a System of Intergovernmental Transfers," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 31(1), pages 189-206, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Robert Fenge & Jakob von Weizsäcker, 2001. "How Much Fiscal Equalization? A Constitutional Approach," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 157(4), pages 623-633, December.
    2. Buettner Thiess & Krause Manuela, 2018. "Föderalismus im Wunderland: Zur Steuerautonomie bei der Grunderwerbsteuer," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 32-41, March.
    3. Manuela Krause, 2019. "Empirical essays on fiscal federalism and political economy in Germany," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 84.
    4. Thiess Büttner, 2006. "Steuerwettbewerb und Finanzausgleich," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 59(04), pages 12-28, February.
    5. Pablo Sanguinetti & Martin Besfamille, 2004. "Exerting local tax effort or lobbying for central transfers?: Evidence from Argentina," Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings 249, Econometric Society.
    6. Bird, Richard M. & Smart, Michael, 2002. "Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers: International Lessons for Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 899-912, June.
    7. Norbert Berthold & Nadya Kosturkova & Andreas Müller, 2010. "Die Bundesländer im Standortwettbewerb - gestern, heute und morgen," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 63(02), pages 15-20, January.
    8. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp769 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Scherf, Wolfgang, 2020. "Länderfinanzausgleich 2020: Neue Form - alte Probleme," Finanzwissenschaftliche Arbeitspapiere 102, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften.
    10. Robin Boadway & Jean-Francois Tremblay, 2005. "A Theory of Vertical Fiscal Imbalance," Working Papers 2006-04, University of Kentucky, Institute for Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations.
    11. Sergey Sinelnikov & Pavel Kadochnikov & Ilya Trunin & Sergey Chetverikov & Marianne Vigneault, 2006. "Fiscal Federalism in Russia: Soft Budget Constraints of Regional Governments," Published Papers 47, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, revised 2012.
    12. Stahl, Dieter, 2005. "Ausgleichsgrad und Anzeizwirkungen des deutschen Länderfinanzausgleichs: Eine kritische Analyse," Forschungs- und Sitzungsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Färber, Gisela (ed.), Das föderative System in Deutschland: Bestandsaufnahme, Reformbedarf und Handlungsempfehlungen aus raumwissenschaftlicher Sicht, volume 127, pages 206-230, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    13. Christian Baretti, 2002. "Wird gute Standortpolitik bestraft? Die Anreizeffekte des kommunalen Finanzsystems," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 55(07), pages 10-16, April.
    14. Ralf Hepp & Jürgen von Hagen, 2012. "Fiscal Federalism in Germany: Stabilization and Redistribution Before and After Unification," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 42(2), pages 234-259, April.
    15. Fritz Söllner, 2001. "Die Einwohnerveredelung im Länderfinanzausgleich," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 54(03), pages 25-29, March.
    16. Oyarzo, Mauricio & Paredes, Dusan, 2019. "Revisiting the link between resource windfalls and subnational crowding out for local mining economies in Chile," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    17. Achim Truger & Dieter Vesper, 2014. "Zur Reform des Länderfinanzausgleichs ? eine Notwendigkeit?," IMK Studies 37-2014, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    18. Buettner, Thiess, 2002. "Fiscal federalism and interstate risk sharing: empirical evidence from Germany," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 195-202, January.
    19. Alejandro Esteller-Moré & Umberto Galmarini & Leonzio Rizzo, 2017. "Fiscal equalization and lobbying," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(2), pages 221-247, April.
    20. Berthold, Norbert & Kullas, Matthias, 2006. "Unternehmer: der Treibstoff des Wachstumsmotors!," Discussion Paper Series 89, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Chair of Economic Order and Social Policy.
    21. Berthold, Norbert & Fricke, Holger, 2009. "Die Bundesländer im Standortwettbewerb," Discussion Paper Series 106, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Chair of Economic Order and Social Policy.

    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:_366. 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.