IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mar/magkse/201030.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Conditional grants to independent regional governments: The trade-off between incentives and wasteful grant-seeking

Author

Listed:
  • Ivo Bischoff

    (University of Kassel)

  • Frédéric Blaeschke

    (University of Kassel)

Abstract

The paper addresses the welfare implications of conditional grants in the presence of inefficiencies in regional production. While conditional grants may set incentives for regions to reduce inefficiencies, resources are wasted in the process of grant-seeking. We provide a theoretical model to assess the net effect on welfare. A game-theoretic context is developed to derive the optimal grant-distribution scheme. Depending on the characteristics of the collective good and of the regional government, the optimal ratio of conditional to block grants and the optimal number of recipients vary. The impact of different factors on the optimal grant-distribution scheme is derived.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivo Bischoff & Frédéric Blaeschke, 2010. "Conditional grants to independent regional governments: The trade-off between incentives and wasteful grant-seeking," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201030, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    • Handle: RePEc:mar:magkse:201030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.uni-marburg.de/en/fb02/research-groups/economics/macroeconomics/research/magks-joint-discussion-papers-in-economics/papers/2010-papers/30-2010_bischoff.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2010
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cornelius Bähr, 2008. "How does Sub‐National Autonomy Affect the Effectiveness of Structural Funds?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 3-18, February.
    2. Kalb, Alexander, 2008. "The Impact of Intergovernmental Grants on Cost Efficiency: Theory and Evidence from German Municipalities," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-051, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    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. Soetkin Verhaegen & Marc Hooghe & Ellen Quintelier, 2014. "European Identity and Support for European Integration: A Matter of Perceived Economic Benefits?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 295-314, May.
    2. Gruševaja, Marina & Pusch, Toralf, 2011. "How does Institutional Setting Affect the Impact of EU Structural Funds on Economic Cohesion? New Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe," IWH Discussion Papers 17/2011, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    3. Jan Fidrmuc & Martin Hulényi & Olga Zajkowska, 2019. "The Elusive Quest for the Holy Grail of an Impact of EU Funds on Regional Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 7989, CESifo.
    4. Muinelo-Gallo, Leonel, 2022. "Business cycles and redistribution: The role of government quality," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 46(4).
    5. Geys, Benny & Konrad, Kai A., . "Federalism and optimal allocation across levels of governance," Chapters in Economics,, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    6. Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés & Ketterer, Tobias, 2016. "Institutions vs. ‘First-Nature’ Geography – What Drives Economic Growth in Europe’s Regions?," CEPR Discussion Papers 11322, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Andreas P Kyriacou & Oriol Roca-Sagalés, 2012. "The Impact of EU Structural Funds on Regional Disparities within Member States," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 30(2), pages 267-281, April.
    8. Marco Di Cataldo, 2016. "Gaining and losing EU Objective 1 funds: Regional development in Britain and the prospect of Brexit," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 120, European Institute, LSE.
    9. repec:got:cegedp:77 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Mohl, Philipp & Hagen, Tobias, 2008. "Does EU Cohesion Policy Promote Growth? Evidence from Regional Data and Alternative Econometric Approaches," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-086, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Mindaugas Butkus & Alma Maciulyte-Sniukiene & Kristina Matuzeviciute, 2020. "Heterogeneous growth outcomes of the EU’s regional financial support mediated by institutions with some empirical evidences at NUTS 3 level," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 40(1), pages 33-66, April.
    12. Kalb, Alexander, 2009. "What determines local governments' technical efficiency? The case of road maintenance," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-047, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. POP Andrada, 2020. "Eu Funding €“ A Positive Impact On Gdp?," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 89-98, July.
    14. Riccardo Crescenzi & Mara Giua, 2016. "The EU Cohesion Policy in context: Does a bottom-up approach work in all regions?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(11), pages 2340-2357, November.
    15. Jana Kolaøíková & Ondøej Dvouletý & Petr Kolaøík, 2018. "Economic performance of the NUTS III Regions in the Czech Republic in the context of entrepreneurship subsidies from the EU Structural Funds," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 36(1), pages 129-153.
    16. Sandy Dall'Erba & Fang Fang, 2017. "Meta-analysis of the impact of European Union Structural Funds on regional growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(6), pages 822-832, June.
    17. Bianka Dettmer & Thomas Sauer, 2019. "Implementation of European Cohesion Policy at the sub‐national level: Evidence from beneficiary data in Eastern Germany," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(1), pages 167-189, February.
    18. Bakanauskienė Irena & Baronienė Laura, 2017. "Theoretical Background for the Decision-Making Process Modelling under Controlled Intervention Conditions," Management of Organizations: Systematic Research, Sciendo, vol. 78(1), pages 7-19, December.
    19. Lisa Maria Dellmuth & Michael F Stoffel, 2012. "Distributive politics and intergovernmental transfers: The local allocation of European Union structural funds," European Union Politics, , vol. 13(3), pages 413-433, September.
    20. Haug, Peter, 2009. "Shadow Budgets, Fiscal Illusion and Municipal Spending: The Case of Germany," IWH Discussion Papers 9/2009, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    21. Hagen, Tobias & Mohl, Philipp, 2009. "How does EU cohesion policy work? Evaluating its effects on fiscal outcome variables," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-051, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    conditional grants; inefficiencies; rent-seeking; fiscal federalism; opportunistic government;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:mar:magkse:201030. 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: Bernd Hayo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vamarde.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.