6533b872fe1ef96bd12d43ae

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Horizontal competition in multilevel governmental settings

Pierre Salmon

subject

JEL: D - Microeconomics/D.D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making/D.D7.D72 - Political Processes: Rent-Seeking Lobbying Elections Legislatures and Voting BehaviordecentralizationContext (language use)DecentralizationJEL : H - Public Economics/H.H7 - State and Local Government • Intergovernmental Relations/H.H7.H77 - Intergovernmental Relations • Federalism • SecessionCompetition (economics)YardstickPolitical science[ SHS.ECO ] Humanities and Social Sciences/Economies and finances[SHS.ECO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and FinanceComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUSJEL : H - Public Economics/H.H7 - State and Local Government • Intergovernmental Relations/H.H7.H70 - GeneralGovernmentHierarchyCompetitionPublic economicsJEL: H - Public Economics/H.H7 - State and Local Government • Intergovernmental Relations/H.H7.H77 - Intergovernmental Relations • Federalism • SecessionJEL: H - Public Economics/H.H7 - State and Local Government • Intergovernmental Relations/H.H7.H70 - General[SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Financeyardstick competitionMultilevel governmental settingsSpiteJEL : D - Microeconomics/D.D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making/D.D7.D72 - Political Processes: Rent-Seeking Lobbying Elections Legislatures and Voting Behaviordecentralizationintergovernmental competitionyardstick competitionPublic financeintergovernmental competition

description

28 pages; Governments situated on the same level of a multi-level governmental system compete with each other as well as with governments placed higher or lower. This paper is concerned with horizontal competition only. It discusses both competition based on the mobility of agents and competition based on comparisons of performance across jurisdictions - i.e., yardstick competition. With regard to the first kind, the focus is on the capacity of governments and voters to decide policies in spite of the mobility of agents. Some attention is also given to non-standard mechanisms in which mobility is manipulated so as to change the structure of the electorate. The paper considers two forms of horizontal yardstick competition, one ('bottom-up') in which comparisons are made by voters, the other ('top-down') in which they are made by some authority higher up in a hierarchy. The second form is analyzed in the context of a more general discussion of horizontal competition acknowledging the existence of several levels of government, in particular the international one.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00830876/file/Salmon_Horizontal_0513_LEG_.pdf