Resisting Economic Integration when Industry Location is Uncertain

No 2006:22, Working Papers from Lund University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper analyses the political determination of transportation costs in a new economic geography model. In a benchmark case with certainty about where agglomeration takes place, a majority of voters favour economic integration and the resulting equilibrium is an industrialised core and a de-industrialised periphery. Allowing for uncertainty, a high level of trade costs may win the election and maintain the initial distribution of industry. The reason is that a coalition of risk-averse immobile factors of production votes for the status quo due to uncertainty about which region will attract industry if economic integration is pursued. Finally, the standard view that agglomeration is unambiguously beneficial to residents in the industrial centre is challenged by introducing costs of undertaking economic integration.

Keywords: footloose entrepreneur model; majority voting; new economic geography; regional policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F12 F15 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2006-11-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-geo, nep-pol and nep-ure
Note: This paper replaces WP 2005:32 "Determining the Level of Transportation Costs in the Core-Periphery Model: a Majority Voting Approach"
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Journal Article: Resisting economic integration when industry location is uncertain (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2006_022

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