Internal migration and public policy

Giuranno, Michele G. and Rongili, Biswas (2012): Internal migration and public policy.

Abstract

This paper studies the relation between internal migration and public spending on public goods. We describe centralized public policy when a central government is comprised of elected representatives from local electoral districts. Internal migration determines the median voter in the districts. The median voters decide the equilibrium policy through bargaining. We find the conditions under which voters' mobility results in larger or smaller public spending. Furthermore, the distance between the actual size and the efficient size of government spending depends on the way internal migration changes the distribution of income within and between districts.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Demographic Changes; Government Spending; Inequality; Redistribution; Bargaining; Political Economy Theory
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D30 - General; D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions; D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D78 - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation; H - Public Economics > H0 - General > H00 - General; H - Public Economics > H4 - Publicly Provided Goods > H41 - Public Goods; H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H50 - General; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics

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