Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations: the Efficiency Effect of Taxes, Transfers and Fiscal Illusion
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency cost of transfers. To this end, we develop a model of individual demand decisions about the provision of a regional public good that encompasses a continuum of tax/transfers scenarios to finance regional public expenditure. We assume that individuals have identical quasi-linear preferences defined over private consumption and the regional public good, that endowment income varies between individuals and regions and that regions have different predetermined sizes. We show that, despite its simplicity, this model is capable of discriminating the efficiency properties of the different scenarios considered, and that the substitution of transfers for own regional taxes always raises the provision of the regional public good. Our model yields the so called “flypaper effect” with no need to appeal to the existence of “fiscal illusion” by the part of the individual. We nevertheless find that “fiscal illusion” increases the elasticity of public good provision with respect to transfers, and we suggest two potentially refutable hypotheses to identify the existence of this phenomenon.
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| Length: | 36 pages |
| Date of creation: | 19 Sep 2012 |
| Handle: | RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper1229 |
| Contact details of provider: | Phone: 404-413-0235 Fax: 404-413-0244 Web page: http://aysps.gsu.edu/isp/index.html
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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.:
- Antoni Zabalza & Julio López-Laborda, 2011.
"The new Spanish system of intergovernmental transfers,"
International Tax and Public Finance,
Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(6), pages 750-786, December.
- Antoni Zabalza & Julio Lopez-Laborda, 2010. "The New Spanish System of Intergovernmental Transfers," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1033, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
- Antoni Zabalza & Julio Lopez-Laborda, 2011. "The New Spanish System of Intergovernmental Transfers," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1103, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
- Bev Dahlby, 2008. "The Marginal Cost of Public Funds: Theory and Applications," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262042509, July.
- Bird, Richard M., 1993. "Threading the Fiscal Labyrinth: Some Issues in Fiscal Decentralization," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 46(2), pages 207-27, June.
- Fisher, Ronald C., 1982. "Income and grant effects on local expenditure: The flypaper effect and other difficulties," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 324-345, November. Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)
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