The redistributive, stabiliser and insurance effects at territorial level of federal government budgets

Abstract

The aim of this study is to estimate the redistributive, stabiliser and insurance effects at territorial level of the federal budget of Australia, Spain, the USA and of the European Union. This analysis is carried out for the budget as a whole through regional fiscal balances and, separately for the revenues and expenditures. The methodology used is a panel data econometric model. The main conclusion is that in all the cases considered the expenditures have higher effects, both redistributive and stabiliser/insurance, than the revenues and that the size of the European budget should increase in order to be able to develope redistributive policies.