IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v70y2003i1p184-194.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Single Welfare Benefit Level for Europe? Efficiency Implications of Policy Harmonization in a Federal System

Author

Listed:
  • Jason L. Saving

Abstract

Within the European Union, it has been suggested that greater economic integration will help European economies regardless of the kind of integration Europe chooses to pursue. In this paper, I examine economic integration in the context of redistributive policy and lind that the effects of such integration are crucially dependent upon the level of redistribution to be adopted as a common policy, with higher welfare benefit levels associated with lower levels of federation output. This suggests that the case for policy harmonization at a generous level must rest on equity rather than efficiency considerations.

Suggested Citation

  • Jason L. Saving, 2003. "A Single Welfare Benefit Level for Europe? Efficiency Implications of Policy Harmonization in a Federal System," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(1), pages 184-194, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:70:y:2003:i:1:p:184-194
    DOI: 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2003.tb00563.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2003.tb00563.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2003.tb00563.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moffitt, Robert, 1992. "Incentive Effects of the U.S. Welfare System: A Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 1-61, March.
    2. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 1990. "Tax harmonization and tax competition in Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(2-3), pages 489-504, May.
    3. Roback, Jennifer, 1982. "Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1257-1278, December.
    4. Blank, Rebecca M., 1988. "The effect of welfare and wage levels on the location decisions of female-headed households," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 186-211, September.
    5. Wildasin, David E, 1991. "Income Redistribution in a Common Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(4), pages 757-774, September.
    6. Wallace E. Oates, 1968. "The Theory of Public Finance in a Federal System," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 1(1), pages 37-54, February.
    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. Glaeser, E. L., 1998. "Should transfer payments be indexed to local price levels?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-20, January.
    2. Saving, Jason L., 1999. "Migration, labor-leisure choice, and Pareto suboptimal redistribution," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 559-573, September.
    3. Feld, Lars P, 2000. "Tax Competition and Income Redistribution: An Empirical Analysis for Switzerland," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 105(1-2), pages 125-164, October.
    4. Huizinga, H.P., 1994. "Migration and income transfers in the presence of labor quality externalities," Other publications TiSEM aedd4a28-0940-4505-8202-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Parviainen, Seija, 1998. "Redistribution and Risk Sharing in EMU," Discussion Papers 159, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Howard Chernick, 1998. "Fiscal Effects of Block Grants for the Needy: An Interpretation of the Evidence," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 5(2), pages 205-233, May.
    7. Jean Gabszewicz & Ornella Tarola & Skerdilajda Zanaj, 2016. "Migration, wages and income taxes," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(3), pages 434-453, June.
    8. Bouton, Laurent & Gassner, Marjorie & Verardi, Vincenzo, 2008. "Redistributing income under fiscal vertical imbalance," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 317-328, June.
    9. Gordon Jong & Deborah Graefe & Tanja St. Pierre, 2005. "Welfare reform and interstate migration of poor families," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 42(3), pages 469-496, August.
    10. Dinkelman, Taryn & Schulhofer-Wohl, Sam, 2015. "Migration, congestion externalities, and the evaluation of spatial investments," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 189-202.
    11. Neumark, David & Powers, Elizabeth T., 2005. "SSI, Labor Supply, and Migration," IZA Discussion Papers 1820, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Jon H. Fiva, 2007. "Does Welfare Policy Affect Residential Choices? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Discussion Papers 503, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    13. Hans-Werner Sinn, 2005. "Migration and Social Replacement Incomes: How to Protect Low-Income Workers in the Industrialized Countries Against the Forces of Globalization and Market Integration," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(4), pages 375-393, August.
    14. Shirley, Peter, 2018. "The response of commuting patterns to cross-border policy differentials: Evidence from the American Community Survey," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-16.
    15. Jacques H. Drèze & Charles Figuières & Jean Hindriks, 2006. "Voluntary Matching Grants Can Forestall Social Dumping," CESifo Working Paper Series 1867, CESifo.
    16. Kolmar, Martin, 1997. "Zur Effizienz nationaler Sozialversicherungssysteme in der Europäischen Union," Discussion Papers, Series II 341, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    17. Goodspeed, Timothy J., 2002. "Tax competition and tax structure in open federal economies: Evidence from OECD countries with implications for the European Union," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 357-374, February.
    18. Jacques H. Drèze & Charles Figuieres & Jean Hindriks, 2007. "Can Federal Grants Mitigate Social Competition?," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 53(4), pages 596-617, December.
    19. Jean Hindriks & Gareth D. Myles, 2003. "Strategic Inter–Regional Transfers," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 5(2), pages 229-248, April.
    20. Jonathan R. Kesselman, 1992. "Income Security via the Tax System: Canadian and American Reforms," NBER Chapters, in: Canada-U.S. Tax Comparisons, pages 97-150, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    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:wly:soecon:v:70:y:2003:i:1:p:184-194. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    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.