Most existing models of fiscal competition between states within federations or regional unions share at least two common features. First, they focus on inter-jurisdictional competition in but one policy instrument, for example, taxes, public goods or environmental quality. The second is that the models capture policy competition as a game and analyze the nature of the Nash equilibrium without considering existence. We recognize that jurisdictions wish to choose efficient policy packages (Non-malevolence Theorem) and this allows us to examine the existence of equilibrium when there are multiple policy instruments. Sufficient conditions for existence are established followed by three examples. In the first, the sufficient conditions are satisfied, guaranteeing existence. For the second example, the sufficient conditions are not met but an equilibrium exists, while in the third example there is no equilibrium. The analysis shows that existence is by no means assured in fiscal competition models and much depends on the particular specification of the model employed.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
David E. Wildasin, 2005.
"Fiscal Competition,"
Working Papers
2005-05, University of Kentucky, Institute for Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations.
[Downloadable!]