Can decentralisation help address poverty and social exclusion in Europe?

Vassilis Tselios and Andrés Rodríguez-Pose

No 2212, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: Poverty reduction and the tackling of social exclusion are overarching goals of development and welfare policies. This paper explores the extent to which decentralisation contributes to poverty and social exclusion alleviation in European countries and regions. We find evidence that increases in central government transfers of political, administrative, and fiscal authority to subnational tiers of government reduce poverty and address social exclusion at an aggregate level. This, however, mainly happens in countries with a high degree of governance quality and, fundamentally, in urban areas. The link between decentralisation and poverty and social exclusion alleviation is more uniform at the regional level, as greater regional autonomy is connected to lower poverty and social exclusion, regardless of the quality of regional government. Hence, when regional governments have the capacity to design their own independent policies, a reduction of poverty and social exclusion and improvements in well-being generally ensue.

Keywords: decentralisation; poverty; social exclusion; quality of governance; urban areas; Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 H53 I32 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-07, Revised 2022-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-geo and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg2212.pdf Version July 2022 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: Can decentralisation help address poverty and social exclusion in Europe? (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:2212

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