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The Progressivity of Equalization Payments in Federations

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas Gravel

    (Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), Delhi & IDEP-GREQAM)

  • Michel Poitevin

    (CIREQ and Department of economics, université de Montréal)

Abstract
We investigate the conditions under which an inequality averse and additively separable welfarist constitution maker would always choose to set up a progressive equalization payment scheme in a federation with local public goods. A progressive equalization payment scheme is defined as a list of per capita net (possibly negative) subsidies – one such net subsidy for every jurisdiction - that are decreasing with respect to jurisdictions per capita wealth. We examine the question in a setting in which the case for progressivity is a priori the strongest, namely, all citizens have the same utility function for the private good and the public good, inhabitants of a given jurisdiction are all identicals and are not able to move accross jurisdictions. We show that a necessary and sufficient condition that the objective function of the constitution maker must satisfy to favour a progressive equalization payment scheme for all distributions of wealth and all population sizes is to be additively separable between each jurisdiction’s per capita wealth and number of inhabitants. When interpreted for a mean of order social welfare function, this condition is shown to be equivalent to additive separability of the individual’s indirect utility function with respect to wealth and the price of the public good. Some implications of this restriction to the case where the citizen direct utility function is additively separable are also derived.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas Gravel & Michel Poitevin, 2004. "The Progressivity of Equalization Payments in Federations," IDEP Working Papers 0408, Institut d'economie publique (IDEP), Marseille, France, revised Jul 2004.
    • Handle: RePEc:iep:wpidep:0408
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Benoît Tarroux, 2012. "Are equalization payments making Canadians better off? A two-dimensional dominance answer," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(1), pages 19-44, March.
    2. Biswas, Rongili & Gravel, Nicolas & Oddou, Rémy, 2009. "The segregative properties of endogenous jurisdictions formation with a welfarist central government," POLIS Working Papers 121, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
    3. Nicolas Gravel & Patrick Moyes & Benoît Tarroux, 2009. "Robust International Comparisons of Distributions of Disposable Income and Regional Public Goods," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(303), pages 432-461, July.
    4. Nicolas Gravel & Michel Poitevin, 2014. "Should a Non-Rival Public Good Always Be Provided Centrally?," Working Papers halshs-01063191, HAL.
    5. Robin Boadway & Katherine Cuff, 2017. "The impressive contribution of Canadian economists to fiscal federalism theory and policy," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1348-1380, December.
    6. Rongili Biswas & Nicolas Gravel & Rémy Oddou, 2013. "The segregative properties of endogenous formation of jurisdictions with a welfarist central government," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 41(2), pages 293-319, July.
    7. Rongili Biswas & Nicolas Gravel & Rémy Oddou, 2008. "On the Segregative Properties of Endogenous Jurisdiction Formation with a Central Government," IDEP Working Papers 0802, Institut d'economie publique (IDEP), Marseille, France, revised 05 2008.
    8. Gravel, Nicolas & Poitevin, Michel, 2019. "Optimal provision of a public good with costly exclusion," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 451-460.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General
    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism

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