Who Wants Political Integration? Evidence from the Swedish EU-Membership Referendum

Vlachos, Jonas

Who Wants Political Integration? Evidence from the Swedish EU-Membership Referendum

No 594, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: The regional voting pattern of the Swedish EU-membership referendum is analyzed to determine voters' preferences over two fiscal regimes: an autonomous Sweden, or Sweden as part of the EU. A major difference between these regimes is that autonomy gives greater national discretion to handle risk-sharing and redistribution between regions. I find that inhabitants of rich and stable regions, with high levels of schooling, small receipts of central government transfers, and trade relations displaying comparative advantages towards the EU were relatively positive to membership. A plausible interpretation is thus that voters in safe and rich regions voted in favor of dismantling the Swedish transfer system.

Keywords: Political Integration; Secession; Regional Risk-Sharing; Regional Redistribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F15 H11 H70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2003-05-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-geo, nep-pbe and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Journal Article: Who wants political integration?: Evidence from the Swedish EU-membership referendum (2004)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0594

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