An Efficiency Case for Cost Equalisation in a Regional Economy with Migration Externalities

Cost equalisation, which redistributes income from low to high cost sub-national regions,is practised in many unitary and federal countries as part of broader schemes designed toequalise scal capacities. While these policies are motivated by equity, in this paper I showthat under plausible circumsta...

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Main Author: Petchey, Jeffrey
Format: Working Paper
Published: School of Economics and Finance, CBS 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39345
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author Petchey, Jeffrey
author_facet Petchey, Jeffrey
author_sort Petchey, Jeffrey
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Cost equalisation, which redistributes income from low to high cost sub-national regions,is practised in many unitary and federal countries as part of broader schemes designed toequalise scal capacities. While these policies are motivated by equity, in this paper I showthat under plausible circumstances cost equalisation enhances economic eciency. Therationale for this striking result has to do with the way that cost dierences across regionsinteract with externalities caused by migration and the role of inter-regional transfers as acorrective instrument. By providing an eciency rationale for cost equalisation, the paperbuilds a more eective bridge between the theory and practice of scal equalisation.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-393452017-01-30T14:33:10Z An Efficiency Case for Cost Equalisation in a Regional Economy with Migration Externalities Petchey, Jeffrey inter-governmental differentials and - their effects federal state relations intergovernmental relations federalism Cost equalisation, which redistributes income from low to high cost sub-national regions,is practised in many unitary and federal countries as part of broader schemes designed toequalise scal capacities. While these policies are motivated by equity, in this paper I showthat under plausible circumstances cost equalisation enhances economic eciency. Therationale for this striking result has to do with the way that cost dierences across regionsinteract with externalities caused by migration and the role of inter-regional transfers as acorrective instrument. By providing an eciency rationale for cost equalisation, the paperbuilds a more eective bridge between the theory and practice of scal equalisation. 2015 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39345 School of Economics and Finance, CBS fulltext
spellingShingle inter-governmental differentials and - their effects
federal state relations
intergovernmental relations
federalism
Petchey, Jeffrey
An Efficiency Case for Cost Equalisation in a Regional Economy with Migration Externalities
title An Efficiency Case for Cost Equalisation in a Regional Economy with Migration Externalities
title_full An Efficiency Case for Cost Equalisation in a Regional Economy with Migration Externalities
title_fullStr An Efficiency Case for Cost Equalisation in a Regional Economy with Migration Externalities
title_full_unstemmed An Efficiency Case for Cost Equalisation in a Regional Economy with Migration Externalities
title_short An Efficiency Case for Cost Equalisation in a Regional Economy with Migration Externalities
title_sort efficiency case for cost equalisation in a regional economy with migration externalities
topic inter-governmental differentials and - their effects
federal state relations
intergovernmental relations
federalism
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39345