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Optimal Public Investment in Economic Centers and the Periphery

Author

Listed:
  • Meurers, Martin
  • Moenius, Johannes
Abstract
We analyze productivity enhancing public expenditure in a spatial economic model with labor mobility, firm-specific increasing returns to scale, and transport costs. Building on Krugman (1991), Fujita, Krugman and Venables (1999) and Redding (2016), we compare optimal investment and tax policies of fiscally autonomous regions to those of a benevolent central planer. We find transport costs and the size of scale effects to influence optimal tax and spending rates under both regimes. For sufficiently low transport costs and low substitutability between manufactured goods, regional fiscal autonomy leads to underinvestment: The lower the transport costs, the lower the local investment, and the higher the potential welfare gain through centralized policies. Our results challenge the view that local public goods should be financed entirely by local governments. They also help explain the recent decline of public investment at the municipal level in fiscally decentralized countries like Germany.

Suggested Citation

  • Meurers, Martin & Moenius, Johannes, 2018. "Optimal Public Investment in Economic Centers and the Periphery," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181579, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181579
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    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/181579/1/VfS-2018-pid-13569.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Martin Meurers & Johannes Moenius, 2020. "Market Potential and Fiscal Incentives Influence Firms’ Location Decisions: Evidence From U.S. Counties," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 34(2), pages 126-139, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    quantitative spatial economics; public investment; fiscal federalism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R53 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Public Facility Location Analysis; Public Investment and Capital Stock
    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism

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