Should fiscal equalisation and regional policy goals and tools be disentangled?

We exploit the mixture of policy goals and instruments of the Spanish Regional Funding System (RFS) to test whether equalisation transfers have an impact on regional convergence. Using FE and 2SLS-IV models and data for 15 regions for the 2002-2018 period, we find that both fiscal equalisation and r...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: López Laborda, Julio, Montes Nebreda, Andoni, Onrubia Fernández, Jorge
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2025
País:España
Recursos:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositório:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/131001
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/131001
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:H10
H7
H73
H77
R5
Regional convergence
Fiscal equalisation
Regional policy
Decentralisation
Intergovernmental transfers
Ciencias Sociales
53 Ciencias Económicas
Descrição
Resumo:We exploit the mixture of policy goals and instruments of the Spanish Regional Funding System (RFS) to test whether equalisation transfers have an impact on regional convergence. Using FE and 2SLS-IV models and data for 15 regions for the 2002-2018 period, we find that both fiscal equalisation and regional transfers show a significant concave convergence promoting effect, which is larger for regional transfers. However, excess/deficit funding caused by overlapping tools and objectives in the RFS does not have a significant relationship with regional convergence. These results are in line with the Tinbergen rule, since it is more cost-effective to promote regional convergence through regional policy funds.