IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lmu/muenar/20331.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Can regional policy in a federation improve economic efficiency?

Author

Listed:
  • Fuest, Clemens
  • Huber, Bernd

Abstract

In the European Union and in many federal and non-federal countries, the central government pays subsidies to poor regions. These subsidies are often seen as a redistributive measure which comes at the cost of an efficiency loss. This paper develops an economic rationale for regional policy based on economic efficiency. We consider a model of a federation consisting of a rich and a poor region. The economy is characterized by imperfect competition in goods markets and unemployment. Firms initially produce in the rich region but may relocate their production to the poor region. We show that a subsidy on investment in the poor region unambiguously increases welfare if labour markets are competitive. If there is unemployment in both regions, the case for regional subsidies is weaker.

Suggested Citation

  • Fuest, Clemens & Huber, Bernd, 2006. "Can regional policy in a federation improve economic efficiency?," Munich Reprints in Economics 20331, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenar:20331
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Huizinga, Harry & Nielsen, Soren Bo, 1997. "Capital income and profit taxation with foreign ownership of firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 149-165, February.
    2. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    3. Markusen, James R. & Morey, Edward R. & Olewiler, Nancy, 1995. "Competition in regional environmental policies when plant locations are endogenous," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 55-77, January.
    4. Sinn, Gerlinde & Sinn, Hans-Werner, 1992. "Kaltstart. Volkswirtschaftliche Aspekte der Deutschen Vereinigung," Monograph, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, edition 2, number urn:isbn:9783161459429.
    5. Kroker, Rolf, 2000. "Zehn Jahre Aufbau Ost: Erfolge, Defizite und Reformbedarf," IW-Trends – Vierteljahresschrift zur empirischen Wirtschaftsforschung, Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW) / German Economic Institute, vol. 27(3), pages 42-76.
    6. Fuest, Clemens & Huber, Bernd, 2000. "Why do governments subsidise investment and not employment?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1-2), pages 171-192, October.
    7. Ignatius J. Horstmann & James R. Markusen, 2021. "Endogenous market structures in international trade (natura facit saltum)," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: BROADENING TRADE THEORY Incorporating Market Realities into Traditional Models, chapter 2, pages 25-45, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Martin, Philippe, 1999. "Public policies, regional inequalities and growth," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 85-105, July.
    9. Richter, Wolfram F. & Wellisch, Dietmar, 1996. "The provision of local public goods and factors in the presence of firm and household mobility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 73-93, April.
    10. Burbidge, John B. & Myers, Gordon M., 1994. "Population mobility and capital tax competition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 441-459, August.
    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. Salima Bouayad Agha & Nadine Turpin & Lionel Vedrine, 2010. "Fostering the potential endogenous development of European regions: a spatial dynamic panel data analysis of the Cohesion Policy on regional convergence over the period 1980-2005," Working Papers halshs-00812077, HAL.
    2. bouayad-agha-Hamouche, salima & turpin, nadine & védrine, lionel, 2012. "Fostering the potential endogenous development of European regions: a spatial dynamic panel data analysis of the Cohesion Policy," MPRA Paper 65470, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Becker, Johannes & Fuest, Clemens, 2010. "EU regional policy and tax competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 150-161, January.
    4. Hélène Laurent & Michel Mignolet & Olivier Meunier, 2009. "Regional policy: What is the most efficient instrument?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(3), pages 491-507, August.
    5. Kiryluk-Dryjska, Ewa, 2008. "Zastosowanie Modelu Optymalizacyjnego Do Alokacji Środków Strukturalnych," Village and Agriculture (Wieś i Rolnictwo), Polish Academy of Sciences (IRWiR PAN), Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development, vol. 4(141).
    6. Robert Fenge & Volker Meier, 2006. "Subsidies for Wages and Infrastructure: How to Restrain Undesired Immigration," CESifo Working Paper Series 1741, CESifo.
    7. Zhen Su & Joshua R. Aaron & William C. McDowell & Dan Dan Lu, 2019. "Sustainable Synergies between the Cultural and Tourism Industries: An Efficiency Evaluation Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-20, November.
    8. Wegener, Stefan & Kiryluk, E., 2008. "Regional aspects of decision-making support for rural development in Poland," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 43845, European Association of Agricultural Economists.

    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. Fuest, Clemens, 2005. "Economic integration and tax policy with endogenous foreign firm ownership," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1823-1840, September.
    2. Haufler, Andreas & Wooton, Ian, 1999. "Country size and tax competition for foreign direct investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 121-139, January.
    3. Vincent Dupont & Philippe Martin, 2006. "Subsidies to poor regions and inequalities: some unpleasant arithmetic," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 223-240, April.
    4. Wolfgang Eggert & Laszlo Goerke, "undated". "Fiscal Policy, Economic Integration and Unemployment," EPRU Working Paper Series 02-05, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    5. Haufler, Andreas & Wooton, Ian, 1997. "Tax Competition for Foreign Direct Investment," CEPR Discussion Papers 1583, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Wagener, Andreas, 2001. "Double Bertrand tax competition: a fiscal game with governments acting as middlemen," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2-3), pages 273-297, April.
    7. Harris, Richard G. & Schmitt, Nicolas, 2001. "Strategic export policy with foreign direct investment and import substitution," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 293-312, February.
    8. Benjamin Montmartin & Nadine Massard, 2015. "Is Financial Support For Private R&D Always Justified? A Discussion Based On The Literature On Growth," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 479-505, July.
    9. Tidiane Ly, 2018. "Sub-metropolitan tax competition with household and capital mobility," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(5), pages 1129-1169, October.
    10. Marta Aloi & Joanna Poyago-Theotoky & Frédéric Tournemaine, 2022. "The Geography of Knowledge and R&D-led Growth [Real effects ofacademic research: comment]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(6), pages 1149-1190.
    11. Devereux, Michael P. & Griffith, Rachel, 1998. "Taxes and the location of production: evidence from a panel of US multinationals," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 335-367, June.
    12. Philippe Martin, 1999. "Are European regional policies delivering?," SciencePo Working papers hal-01011168, HAL.
    13. Hikaru Ogawa, 2010. "Fiscal Competition among Regional Governments - Tax Competition, Expenditure Competition and Externalities -," Public Policy Review, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-30, February.
    14. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/9328 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Huizinga, Harry & Nicodeme, Gaetan, 2006. "Foreign ownership and corporate income taxation: An empirical evaluation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 1223-1244, July.
    16. Haiwen Zhou, 2018. "Impact of international trade on unemployment under oligopoly," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 365-379, May.
    17. Joe Tharakan & Jean‐Philippe Tropeano, 2009. "On The Impact Of Labor Market Matching On Regional Disparities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 57-80, February.
    18. Paul Chiambaretto & André De Palma & Stef Proost, 2013. "A normative analysis of transport policies in a footloose capital model with interregional and intraregional transportation costs," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 51(3), pages 811-831, December.
    19. Kjetil Bjorvatn & Guttorm Schjelderup, 2002. "Tax Competition and International Public Goods," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 9(2), pages 111-120, March.
    20. Fabio Cerina & Francesco Pigliaru, 2007. "Agglomeration and Growth in the NEG: A Critical Assessment," Chapters, in: Bernard Fingleton (ed.), New Directions in Economic Geography, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    21. Hyun-Ju Koh & Ferdinand Mittermaier, 2009. "The winner gives it all: Unions, tax competition and offshoring," Working Papers 079, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).

    More about this item

    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:lmu:muenar:20331. 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: Tamilla Benkelberg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.