Redistribution as a Local Public Good: An Empirical Test for Flemish Municipalities
利用佛兰德市政数据，首次实证检验再分配作为地方公共品的假设，发现政府地理范围越大，再分配意愿越低，且社会、文化、政治距离等因素也影响福利政策。
Redistribution is typically viewed as a task of the central government. However, in most federal countries local governments do have some discretion in redistribution policy. The main theoretical argument for this is that redistribution may be a local public good (Pauly 1973). Using data on Flemish municipalities, we present a first empirical test of Pauly’s assumption. We find that the willingness to redistribute is negatively affected by the geographical dimension of the responsible government. We extend the notion of distance, considering also sociological, cultural, income and political distances between donors and recipients. We find that, with the exception of income, these are relevant determinants of welfare policy, though they do not always have the predicted effect.