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Comparative political economy of regional transport infrastructure investment in Europe

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  • Kemmerling, Achim
  • Stephan, Andreas

Abstract

We study the role of political institutions in the regional allocation of public infrastructure investments in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. We estimate the regional variation in the allocation for each country, controlling for the potential endogeneity of its impact on growth and distribution. We compare the importance of political institutions, federalism and the electoral system, with the normative criteria, efficiency, redistribution and equality. We find that on the macro-level there is some evidence that different national institutions do indeed shape political competition, but that partisan politics and, in particular, normative principles are overall more influential across all types of political systems.

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  • Kemmerling, Achim & Stephan, Andreas, 2015. "Comparative political economy of regional transport infrastructure investment in Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 227-239.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:43:y:2015:i:1:p:227-239
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2013.08.002
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    Cited by:

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    2. Lie Ma & Dandan Li & Xiaobo Tao & Haifeng Dong & Bei He & Xiaosu Ye, 2017. "Inequality, Bi-Polarization and Mobility of Urban Infrastructure Investment in China’s Urban System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-19, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    H54; H77; O40; R10; Regional allocation; Political economy; Fiscal federalism; Transport infrastructure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General

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