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Political Geography and Income Inequalities

Author

Listed:
  • Filippo Gregorini

    (DISCE, Università Cattolica; DEFAP, Università Cattolica)

Abstract
This paper studies the effect of the introduction of income inequalities in a model of geopolitical organization. We assume the existence of two groups of agents with different incomes. We focus on the policy effects of changes in income differential between the groups and changes in the fraction of the population belonging to the two groups. In the optimal solution, if size is endogenous and public good provision exogenous size increases as income inequality increases; if both size and public good provision are endogenously determined size is neutral to changes in income inequalities and public good provision decreases as inequality increases. There are cases where a stable solution does not exist and the possibility of non existence increases together with inequality, if both size and public good provision are endogenously determined.

Suggested Citation

  • Filippo Gregorini, 2007. "Political Geography and Income Inequalities," DISCE - Quaderni dell'Istituto di Teoria Economica e Metodi Quantitativi itemq0746, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    • Handle: RePEc:ctc:serie6:itemq0746
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    File URL: http://www.unicatt.it/Istituti/TeoriaEconomica/Quaderni/itemq0746.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2007
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Philippe De Donder & Michel Le Breton & Eugenio Peluso, 2012. "Majority Voting in Multidimensional Policy Spaces: Kramer–Shepsle versus Stackelberg," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 14(6), pages 879-909, December.
    2. Enrico Bellino, 2012. "Pasinetti on Ricardo," DISCE - Quaderni dell'Istituto di Teoria Economica e Metodi Quantitativi itemq1258, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    3. Stefano Colombo & Luigi Filippini, 2012. "Product innovation and logistic optimization in a novel urban-type model," DISCE - Quaderni dell'Istituto di Teoria Economica e Metodi Quantitativi itemq1259, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    4. Enrico Longoni & Filippo Gregorini, 2009. "Inequality, Political Systems and Public Spending," Working Papers 159, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2009.
    5. Francesco De Sinopoli & Giovanna Iannantuoni, 2009. "On the expect of ideology in proportional representation systems," Working Papers 160, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2009.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Country Size; Public Good; Income Inequality; Tax Distortion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

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