Political knowledge and attitudes toward (de)centralization in Europe

Floriana Cerniglia and Laura Pagani

No 272, Working Papers from University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics

Abstract: The allocation of competences between the EU and Member States is one of most burning issues in the history of the European integration. From a theoretical economic perspective, this ongoing process calls into question the theory of fiscal federalism. In this paper, we study empirically the impact of European citizens’ knowledge about the EU on their attitudes toward the allocation of competences. We use micro-data from the Eurobarometer survey. We find that more knowledgeable citizens are more willing to favour centralization of competences to the EU in areas where public intervention by individual Member States causes externalities, where scale economies in the provision of public goods are important and where redistributive and stabilization functions have to be pursued.

Keywords: European Union; Information; Policy opinions; Political Economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D8 H7 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44
Date: 2014-04, Revised 2014-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-eur, nep-knm, nep-pbe and nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mib:wpaper:272

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