Wasteful public spending and state aid control
Abstract
The conventional academic rationale for supranational intervention to curb state aids to industry appeals to transfrontier spillovers. However, competition policy practitioners often speak in terms of curbing "wasteful" spending, regardless of whether or not any international spillovers are involved. Although it is often argued that such wasteful spending calls not for supranational state aid control but rather for better domestic political accountability, this paper argues that wasteful spending may be a by-product of accountability, not a symptom of its absence. Specifically, we describe a model in which politicians fund projects that are wasteful as a way to signal their diligence, and voters rationally reward them for this. We discuss implications for the role of state aid control mechanisms. (JEL: D72, D78, D82, H25) (c) 2006 by the European Economic Association.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
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Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles in its series ULB Institutional Repository with number 2013/9635.Length:
Date of creation: 2006
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published in: European Economic Association. Journal (2006) v.4,p.513-522
Handle: RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/9635
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Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Mathias Dewatripont & Paul Seabright, 2006. ""Wasteful" Public Spending and State Aid Control," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(2-3), pages 513-522, 04-05.
- Dewatripont, Mathias & Seabright, Paul, 2006. "Wasteful Public Spending and State Aid Control," Open Access publications from University of Toulouse 1 Capitole http://neeo.univ-tlse1.fr, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole.
- D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy-Making and Implementation
- D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
- H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
References
References listed on IDEASPlease 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.:
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Christa Hainz & Hendrik Hakenes, 2009.
"The Politician and his Banker – How to Efficiently Grant State Aid,"
Ifo Working Paper Series
Ifo Working Paper No. 71, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
- Hainz, Christa & Hakenes, Hendrik, 2012. "The politician and his banker — How to efficiently grant state aid," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 218-225.
- Áron Kiss, 2009.
"Coalition politics and accountability,"
Public Choice,
Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 413-428, June.
- Kiss, Áron, 2009. "Coalition politics and accountability," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Market Processes and Governance SP II 2009-01, Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB).
- Hendrik Hakanes & Christa Hainz, 2008.
"The Politician and his Banker,"
Working Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods
2008_01, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
- Hainz, Christa & Hakenes, Hendrik, 2007. "The Politician and his Banker," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 222, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
- Christa Hainz & Hendrik Hakenes, 2007. "The Politician and his Banker," CESifo Working Paper Series 2153, CESifo Group Munich.
- Martin Gregor & Dalibor Roháč, 2009.
"The Optimal State Aid Control: No Control,"
Working Papers IES
2009/14, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Mar 2009.
- Martin Gregor & Dalibor Roháč, 2009. "The Optimal State Aid Control: No Control," Czech Economic Review, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, vol. 3(1), pages 093-113, March.
- Cécile Aubert & Oliver Falck & Stephan Heblich, 2008. "Subsidizing National Champions: An Evolutionary Perspective," CESifo Working Paper Series 2380, CESifo Group Munich.
- Pierre-André Buigues & Khalid Sekkat, 2011. "Public Subsidies to Business: An International Comparison," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, March.
- Lars Calmfors & Giancarlo Corsetti & Michael P. Devereux & Gilles Saint-Paul & Hans-Werner Sinn & Jan-Egbert Sturm & Xavier Vives, 2008. "Chapter 4: Industrial policy," EEAG Report on the European Economy, CESifo Group Munich, vol. 0, pages 105-124, 02.
- Christoph Bertsch & Claudio Calcagno & Mark Le Quement, 2009. "State aid and tacit collusion," Economics Working Papers ECO2009/36, European University Institute.
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