The Politics and Economics of Regional Transfers

Which programmes of income redistribution across jurisdictions are likely to be chosen in democratic countries and why? How does the degree of government centralization affect these choices? How does redistribution of income across regions interact with the migration of factors of production? Do these processes reinforce or do they obstruct each other, and why? This book tries to answer these questions and others related to the issue of income redistribution across states and regions.The book adopts a positive, public choice approach in the theoretical analysis and tests the predictions on evidence drawn from a highly centralized country (Italy) and a highly decentralized one (the United States). The Politics and Economics of Regional Transfers will be of great interest to scholars of economics, public finance and public choice. Students of economics, economic development, political economy, regional and local economics, public finance and public choice will also find it of interest, as will policy analysts.