IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/luc/wpaper/12-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the long run economic performance of small economies

Author

Listed:
  • Patrice Pieretti

    () (CREA, University of Luxembourg)

  • Skerdilajda Zanaj

    () (CREA, University of Luxembourg)

  • Benteng Zou

    () (CREA, University of Luxembourg)

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the long run economic performance of a small economy open to foreign investments. Policy instruments used to attract investments are taxes and attractive public infrastructures, whereas the policy choices of the rest of the world are taken as given. Applying the Pontryagin’s maximum principle, we first show that there exists one long run optimal size of the small economy which is saddle-point stable. The transitional path is two-dimensional, if the small economy is patient enough. Then, we show that the share of tax income allocated to the infrastructure expenditures plays an important role in attaining such a steady state. However, a deviation from this policy path can lead to an eventual economic collapse.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrice Pieretti & Skerdilajda Zanaj & Benteng Zou, 2012. "On the long run economic performance of small economies," CREA Discussion Paper Series 12-14, Center for Research in Economic Analysis, University of Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:luc:wpaper:12-14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wwwen.uni.lu/content/download/57992/684536/file/2012-14%20-%20On%20the%20long%20run%20economic%20performance%20of%20small%20economies.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hindriks, Jean & Peralta, Susana & Weber, Shlomo, 2008. "Competing in taxes and investment under fiscal equalization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(12), pages 2392-2402, December.
    2. Robert Read, 2008. "Foreign direct investment in small island developing states," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 502-525.
    3. Eicher, Theo S. & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2001. "Transitional dynamics in a two-sector non-scale growth model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 25(1-2), pages 85-113, January.
    4. Pieretti, Patrice & Zanaj, Skerdilajda, 2011. "On tax competition, public goods provision and jurisdictions' size," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 124-130, May.
    5. Justman, Moshe & Thisse, Jacques-Francois & van Ypersele, Tanguy, 2005. "Fiscal competition and regional differentiation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 848-861, November.
    6. Cardarelli, Roberto & Taugourdeau, Emmanuelle & Vidal, Jean-Pierre, 2002. " A Repeated Interactions Model of Tax Competition," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 4(1), pages 19-38.
    7. Oded Galor, 1996. "Discrete Dynamical Systems," Working Papers 96-23, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    8. Cuong Van & Raouf Boucekkine & Cagri Saglam, 2007. "Optimal Control in Infinite Horizon Problems: A Sobolev Space Approach," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 32(3), pages 497-509, September.
    9. Marco Cotenaro & Jean-Pierre Vidal, 2006. "Implicit tax co-ordination under repeated policy interactions," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 72(1), pages 5-18.
    10. Catenaro, Marco & Vidal, Jean-Pierre, 2003. "Implicit tax co-ordination under repeated policy interactions," Working Paper Series 259, European Central Bank.
    11. Armstrong, Harvey & Read, Robert, 1995. "Western European micro-states and EU autonomous regions: The advantages of size and sovereignty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 1229-1245, July.
    12. Armstrong, H. & De Kervenoael, R. J. & Li, X. & Read, R., 1998. "A comparison of the economic performance of different micro-states, and between micro-states and larger countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 639-656, April.
    13. Itaya, Jun-ichi & Okamura, Makoto & Yamaguchi, Chikara, 2008. "Are regional asymmetries detrimental to tax coordination in a repeated game setting?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(12), pages 2403-2411, December.
    14. Ogura, Laudo M., 2006. "A note on tax competition, attachment to home, and underprovision of public goods," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 252-258, March.
    15. Streeten, Paul, 1993. "The special problems of small countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 197-202, February.
    16. Harvey W. Armstrong & Robert Read, 2002. "The phantom of liberty?: economic growth and the vulnerability of small states," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 435-458.
    17. Marco CATENARO & Jean-Pierre VIDAL, 2006. "Implicit tax co-ordination under repeated policy interactions," Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) 2006011, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    18. Dockner,Engelbert J. & Jorgensen,Steffen & Long,Ngo Van & Sorger,Gerhard, 2000. "Differential Games in Economics and Management Science," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521637329, May.
    19. Briguglio, Lino, 1995. "Small island developing states and their economic vulnerabilities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(9), pages 1615-1632, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yutao Han & Patrice Pieretti & Benteng Zou, 2013. "The Dynamics of the Location of Firms – A Revisit of Home-Attachment under Tax Competition," CREA Discussion Paper Series 13-15, Center for Research in Economic Analysis, University of Luxembourg.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic dynamics; spatial dynamic competition; public goods; competition; foreign direct investments;

    JEL classification:

    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration

    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:luc:wpaper:12-14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Elisa Ferreira). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/crcrplu.html .

    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 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.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.