Migration with Local Public Goods and the Gains from Changing Places Articles
Overview
published in
- ECONOMIC THEORY Journal
publication date
- June 2009
start page
- 359
end page
- 377
issue
- 3
volume
- 41
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0938-2259
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1432-0479
abstract
- Without public goods and under fairly standard assumptions, in Hammond and Sempere (J Pub Econ Theory, 8: 145&-170, 2006) we show that freeing migration enhances the potential Pareto gains from free trade. Here, we present a generalization allowing local public goods subject to congestion. Unlike the standard literature on fiscal externalities, our result relies on fixing both local public goods and congestion levels at their status quo values. This allows constrained efficient and potentially Pareto improving population exchanges regulated only through appropriate residence charges, which can be regarded as Pigouvian congestion taxes.