Rafael Domenech, Antonio Maudes and Juan Varela
Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, 136(4), 2000.
In this paper we analyze the redistributive effects among European
countries of the EU budget, exploring the relationship between
income and fiscal flows, both in per capita terms. As redistribution
policies imply transferring income among members to alleviate
persistent differences in per capita income levels, they can
increase the speed of convergence of beneficiary countries to
similar steady states. Using a new data set on EU budget data from
1986 to 1998, we find that the EU budget has a redistributive
character, though only on its expenditure side. Of all expenditure
categories we do consider, the most redistributive one is the
regional fund, followed by the social fund and by the guarantee
section of the EAGGF. All of them become increasingly redistributive
in time. As far as total budgetary revenues are concerned, they show
proportionality with income. When we consider the net financial
balance, our analysis allows us to identify three groups of
countries, given the treatment they get from the EU budget that
cannot be explained by their per capita income levels.
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