IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwppe/0511012.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Preventing competition because of “solidarity”: Rhetoric and reality of airport investments in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Germà Bel

    (University of Barcelona)

  • Xavier Fageda

    (University of Barcelona)

Abstract

Spain is the only large European country in which airport management is strictly centralized and publicly owned. This peculiar institutional setting prevents competition among Spanish airports, and policy makers and bureaucrats in charge of the system regularly justify it on grounds of interterritorial solidarity. This paper tests whether allocation of investments in airports is effectively based on redistributive purposes, as claimed and looks at other factors to explain such allocation. Our empirical analysis suggests that neither a progressive redistribution target nor the scale economies criterion explain allocation decisions. Instead, we find that political factors have significant influence on the allocation decisions made by the government.

Suggested Citation

  • Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda, 2005. "Preventing competition because of “solidarity”: Rhetoric and reality of airport investments in Spain," Public Economics 0511012, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0511012
    Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 25
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/pe/papers/0511/0511012.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grossman, Philip J, 1994. "A Political Theory of Intergovernmental Grants," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 78(3-4), pages 295-303, March.
    2. Kevin T. Duffy-Deno & Randall W. Eberts, 1996. "Public Infrastructure and Regional Economic Development: A Simultaneous Equations Approach," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Niles Hansen & Kenneth J. Button & Peter Nijkamp (ed.),Regional Policy and Regional Integration, pages 295-309, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    3. Rafael Flores De Frutos & Mercedes Gracia-Diez & Teodosio Perez, 1998. "Public capital stock and economic growth: an analysis of the Spanish economy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(8), pages 985-994.
    4. Aschauer, David Alan, 1989. "Is public expenditure productive?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 177-200, March.
    5. A. Bhargava & L. Franzini & W. Narendranathan, 2006. "Serial Correlation and the Fixed Effects Model," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Econometrics, Statistics And Computational Approaches In Food And Health Sciences, chapter 4, pages 61-77, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    6. Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda, 2008. "Getting there fast: globalization, intercontinental flights and location of headquarters," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(4), pages 471-495, July.
    7. Jan K. Brueckner, 2003. "Airline Traffic and Urban Economic Development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(8), pages 1455-1469, July.
    8. Worthington, Andrew C & Dollery, Brian E, 1998. "The Political Determination of Intergovernmental Grants in Australia," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 94(3-4), pages 299-315, March.
    9. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 1995. "What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 634-647, September.
    10. Costa-I-Font, Joan & Rodriguez-Oreggia, Eduardo & Lunapla, Dario, 2003. "Political Competition and Pork-Barrel Politics in the Allocation of Public Investment in Mexico," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 116(1-2), pages 185-204, July.
    11. Castells, Antoni & Sole-Olle, Albert, 2005. "The regional allocation of infrastructure investment: The role of equity, efficiency and political factors," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 1165-1205, July.
    12. Olivier Cadot & Lars-Hendrik Röller & Andreas Stephan, 1999. "A Political Economy Model of Infrastructure Allocation: An Empirical Assessment," CIG Working Papers FS IV 99-15, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    13. Case, Anne, 2001. "Election goals and income redistribution: Recent evidence from Albania," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 405-423, March.
    14. Behrman, Jere R & Craig, Steven G, 1987. "The Distribution of Public Services: An Exploration of Local Governmental Preferences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(1), pages 37-49, March.
    15. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, 1994. "Public-Sector Capital and the Productivity Puzzle," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(1), pages 12-21, February.
    16. Garcia-Mila, Teresa & McGuire, Therese J., 1992. "The contribution of publicly provided inputs to states' economies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 229-241, June.
    17. Button, Kenneth & Lall, Somik & Stough, Roger & Trice, Mark, 1999. "High-technology employment and hub airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 53-59.
    18. Nigel James Miller & Christopher Tsoukis, 2001. "On the optimality of public capital for long-run economic growth: evidence from panel data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(9), pages 1117-1129.
    19. Norihiko Yamano & Toru Ohkawara, 2000. "The Regional Allocation of Public Investment: Efficiency or Equity?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 205-229, May.
    20. R. Milbourne & G. Otto & G. Voss, 2003. "Public investment and economic growth," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(5), pages 527-540.
    21. de la Fuente, Angel, 2004. "Second-best redistribution through public investment: a characterization, an empirical test and an application to the case of Spain," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 489-503, September.
    22. Johansson, Eva, 2003. "Intergovernmental grants as a tactical instrument: empirical evidence from Swedish municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(5-6), pages 883-915, May.
    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. Kappeler, Andreas & Solé-Ollé, Albert & Stephan, Andreas & Välilä, Timo, 2013. "Does fiscal decentralization foster regional investment in productive infrastructure?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 15-25.
    2. Roy Bahl & Richard M. Bird, 2014. "Decentralization and Infrastructure: Principles and Practice," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1408, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    3. Albalate, Daniel & Bel, Germà & Fageda, Xavier, 2015. "When supply travels far beyond demand: Causes of oversupply in Spain's transport infrastructure," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 80-89.
    4. Germá Bel & Xavier Fageda, 2009. "Factors Explaining Charges in European Airports: Competition, Market Size, Private Ownership and Regulation," Working Papers 2009-31, FEDEA.
    5. Bilotkach, Volodymyr, 2018. "Political economy of infrastructure investment: Evidence from the economic stimulus airport grants," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 27-35.
    6. Daniel Albalate & Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda, 2010. "Is it Redistribution or Centralization? On the Determinants of Government Investment in Infrastructure," Working Papers XREAP2010-15, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Dec 2010.
    7. Castillo-Manzano, José I. & López-Valpuesta, Lourdes & González-Laxe, Fernando, 2011. "The effects of the LCC boom on the urban tourism fabric: The viewpoint of tourism managers," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 1085-1095.
    8. Núñez-Sánchez, Ramón, 2015. "Regional public support to airlines and airports: An unsolved puzzle," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 93-107.
    9. Germá Bel & Xavier Fageda, 2011. "La reforma del modelo de gestión de aeropuertos en España: ¿Gestión conjunta o individual?," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 196(1), pages 109-130, january.
    10. JOSÉ I. Castillo-Manzano & Xavier Fageda, 2014. "How are Investments Allocated in a Publicly Owned Port System? Political Factors versus Economic Criteria," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(7), pages 1279-1294, July.
    11. Daniel Albalate & Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda, 2013. "“When supply travels far beyond demand: Institutional and regulatory causes of oversupply in Spain’s transport infrastructure”," IREA Working Papers 201312, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Jun 2013.
    12. Ballart, Xavier & Güell, Casilda, 2015. "Airport ownership and regulation in Spain: Explaining the resistance to change," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 112-118.
    13. Kappeler, Andreas & Solé-Ollé, Albert & Stephan, Andreas & Välilä, Timo, 2013. "Does fiscal decentralization foster regional investment in productive infrastructure?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 15-25.

    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. Kemmerling, Achim & Stephan, Andreas, 2015. "Comparative political economy of regional transport infrastructure investment in Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 227-239.
    2. Pedro R.D. Bom & Jenny E. Ligthart, 2009. "How Productive is Public Capital? A Meta-Regression Analysis," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0912, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    3. Padovano, Fabio, 2012. "The drivers of interregional policy choices: Evidence from Italy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 324-340.
    4. Ward Romp & Jakob De Haan, 2007. "Public Capital and Economic Growth: A Critical Survey," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8(S1), pages 6-52, April.
    5. Silvia Bertarelli, 2006. "Public capital and growth," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 361-398.
    6. Kemmerling, Achim & Stephan, Andreas, 2002. "The Contribution of Local Public Infrastructure to Private Productivity and Its Political Economy: Evidence from a Panel of Large German Cities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 113(3-4), pages 403-424, December.
    7. Aray, Henry & Pacheco-Delgado, Janeth, 2020. "Public investment allocation across Ecuadorian Provinces," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    8. Celbis, M.G. & Crombrugghe, D. de & Muysken, J., 2014. "Public investment and regional politics: The case of Turkey," MERIT Working Papers 2014-020, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Alfredo M. Pereira & Jorge M. Andraz, 2013. "On The Economic Effects Of Public Infrastructure Investment: A Survey Of The International Evidence," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 1-37, December.
    10. Valter Di Giacinto & Giacinto Micucci & Pasqualino Montanaro, 2012. "The Macroeconomic Impact of Infrastructures: A Literature Review and Empirical Analysis on the Case of Italy," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 1, March.
    11. Andreas Stephan, 2007. "Zur Politischen Ökonomie öffentlicher Infrastrukturausgaben," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8(S1), pages 116-132, April.
    12. Mohanty, Biswajit & Bhanumurthy, N. R. & Dastidar, Ananya Ghosh, 2017. "What explains Regional Imbalances in Infrastructure?: Evidence from Indian States," Working Papers 17/197, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    13. Solé-Ollé, Albert & Sorribas-Navarro, Pilar, 2008. "The effects of partisan alignment on the allocation of intergovernmental transfers. Differences-in-differences estimates for Spain," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(12), pages 2302-2319, December.
    14. Markus Reischmann, 2016. "Empirical Studies on Public Debt and Fiscal Transfers," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 63.
    15. Pedro R. D. Bom & Jenny Ligthart, 2008. "How Productive is Public Capital? A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 2206, CESifo.
    16. Sylvie Charlot & Virginie Piguet & Bertrand Schmitt, 2003. "Capital public et productivite quels effets sur les disparites regionales ?," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 113(6), pages 851-880.
    17. Emanuela Marrocu & Raffaele Paci, 2010. "The effects of public capital on the productivity of the Italian regions," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(8), pages 989-1002.
    18. Alejandro Esteller & Albert Solé, 2005. "Does decentralization improve the efficiency in the allocation of public investment? Evidence from Spain," Working Papers 2005/5, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    19. Chandra, Amitabh & Thompson, Eric, 2000. "Does public infrastructure affect economic activity?: Evidence from the rural interstate highway system," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 457-490, July.
    20. Biswajit Mohanty & N.R. Bhanumurthy & Ananya Ghosh Dastidar, 2017. "What explains regional imbalances in public infrastructure expenditure? Evidence from Indian states," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 24(2), pages 113-139, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public Enterprise; Legal monopolies; Air Transportation; Models with Panel Data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L32 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Public Enterprises; Public-Private Enterprises
    • L43 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Legal Monopolies and Regulation or Deregulation
    • L93 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Air Transportation
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    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:wpa:wuwppe:0511012. 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: EconWPA (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de .

    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.