IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eca/wpaper/2013-393488.html

Do Public Goods Actually Reduce Inequality?

Author

Listed:
  • Micael Castanheira De Moura
  • Giovanni Paolo Mariani
  • Clemence Tricaud

Abstract

Public goods are meant to be universal, but they are inherently place-based. This paper systematically measures spatial access to public goods and quantifies the implications of distance to public facilities for income inequality. First, we map all schools and hospitals across Belgium. We compute the distance to facilities for each of the 20,000 neighborhoods and document large spatial inequalities in access to public facilities. Second, we find that this unequal distribution favors high-income neighborhoods: allocating public goods spending proportionally to our access index increases income inequality compared to measures based solely on disposable income. Third, we show that the positive relationship between income and access can be rationalized by a simple model of public goods allocation with an inequality-neutral social planner. Finally, we provide evidence that access is strongly correlated with educational and health outcomes, emphasizing the need to consider the place-based nature of public goods when measuring inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Micael Castanheira De Moura & Giovanni Paolo Mariani & Clemence Tricaud, "undated". "Do Public Goods Actually Reduce Inequality?," Working Papers ECARES 2025-011, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/393488
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/393488/3/2025-11-CASTANHEIRA_MARIANI_TRICAUD-do.pdf
    File Function: Œuvre complète ou partie de l'œuvre
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rebecca Diamond, 2016. "The Determinants and Welfare Implications of US Workers' Diverging Location Choices by Skill: 1980-2000," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(3), pages 479-524, March.
    2. Gerald Auten & David Splinter, 2024. "Income Inequality in the United States: Using Tax Data to Measure Long-Term Trends," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(7), pages 2179-2227.
    3. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Estimates for the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(2), pages 553-609.
    4. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    5. THISSE, Jacques-François & WILDASIN, David, 1992. "Public facility location and urban spatial structure," LIDAM Reprints CORE 1011, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    6. Conor Clarke & Wojciech Kopczuk, 2025. "Measuring Income and Income Inequality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 103-126, Spring.
    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. V. Kerry Smith, 2026. "Judging Trends in Income Inequality in the U.S.: Do the Measures Matter?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 92(4), pages 1100-1111, April.
    2. William M. Boal, 2026. "Trends and Myths in U.S. Income Inequality: A Review Essay," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 71(1), pages 147-168, March.
    3. Theo Palomo & Davi Bhering & Thiago Scot & Pierre Bachas & Luciana Barcarolo & Celso Campos & Javier Feinmann & Leonardo Moreira & Gabriel Zucman, 2025. "Tax Progressivity and Inequality in Brazil: Evidence from Integrated Administrative Data," Reports 009, EU Tax Observatory.
    4. Yumin Hu & Luca Macedoni & Mingzhi (Jimmy) Xu, 2025. "Inequality and Market Power: Evidence from the United States and China," CESifo Working Paper Series 12181, CESifo.
    5. Arindrajit Dube & Attila Lindner, 2021. "City Limits: What Do Local-Area Minimum Wages Do?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 27-50, Winter.
    6. Nicolas Jannin & Aurélie Sotura, 2019. "This Town Ain't Big Enough? Quantifying Local Public Goods Spillovers," Working Papers halshs-02160251, HAL.
    7. Johannes König & Christian Schluter & Carsten Schröder, 2025. "Routes to the Top," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 71(2), May.
    8. Löffler, Max & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2015. "Property Taxation, Local Labor Markets and Rental Housing," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112967, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Loumeau, Gabriel, 2023. "Locating Public Facilities: Theory and Micro Evidence from Paris," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    10. José Manuel Amoedo & Bruno Blanco-Varela, 2026. "Analysing the link between income composition inequality and personal income inequality in Spain 2007–2021," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 53(3), pages 971-1003, August.
    11. Unayama Takashi & Sano Shinpei & Yugami Kazufumi & Inaba Kazuhiro, 2026. "Evaluating Tax Return Data as a Source of Income Statistics," Public Policy Review, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan, vol. 22(1), pages 1-37, March.
    12. Pablo D Fajgelbaum & Eduardo Morales & Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato & Owen Zidar, 2019. "State Taxes and Spatial Misallocation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(1), pages 333-376.
    13. Gonzalez Alvaredo, Facundo & Bourguignon, François & Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Lakner, Christoph & Lustig, Nora, 2026. "Is income inequality on the rise everywhere?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 138896, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Aaberge, Rolf & Francesconi, Marco & Modalsli, Jorgen & Vestad, Ola, 2024. "How Business Income Measures Affect Income Inequality and the Tax Burden," CEPR Discussion Papers 19725, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    15. Gethin, Amory, 2026. "Who benefits from public services? Novel evidence and implications for inequality measurement," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    16. Berliant, Marcus & Watanabe, Axel, 2026. "Agglomeration in purely neoclassical and symmetric economies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    17. Selcuk Eren & Andrew W. Nutting, 2020. "Political Environment and US Domestic Migration," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 525-556, October.
    18. Erik Bengtsson & Jakob Molinder & Svante Prado, 2026. "Income Inequality and Structural Transformation: Evidence from Swedish Micro Data, 1870–1970," Working Papers 0305, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    19. Brox, Enzo & Krieger, Tommy, 2025. "Far-right mass protests and their effects on internal migration," ZEW Discussion Papers 25-045, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    20. Howard, Greg & Ornaghi, Arianna, 2021. "Closing Time: The Local Equilibrium Effects of Prohibition," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(3), pages 792-830, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • R28 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Government Policy

    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:eca:wpaper:2013/393488. 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: Benoit Pauwels (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/arulbbe.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.