The Assignment of Powers in an Open-Ended European Union

A major characteristic of the European Union is its transitional or evolving nature, in particular with regard to the assignment of powers between the two main levels of government. More precisely, under current constitutional arrangements, this evolving nature takes the form of an integration process which tends to be monotonous, that is, which can only with great difficulty be reversed. The paper is mainly devoted to the explanation of how this comes about and what effects this has on other features of the process. As a concluding remark, however, it suggests that an additional criterion for judging - or an additional indicator for reading - proposed constitutional reforms can be derived from the analysis. This criterion or indicator should be of some value independently of the position adopted with regard to European integration.

[1]  Trond E. Olsen,et al.  Regulatory Competition and Multinational Banking , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[2]  Giacomo Corneo,et al.  Capital Taxation May Survive in Open Economies , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[3]  Ulrich Hange,et al.  Education Policy and Mobility: Some Basic Results , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[4]  Frederick van der Ploeg,et al.  Beyond the Dogma of the Fixed Book Price Agreement , 2004 .

[5]  Robert D. Cooter,et al.  The Strategic Constitution , 2000 .

[6]  James M. Buchanan,et al.  The limits of liberty: between anarchy and Leviathan , 1976 .

[7]  Michael P. Devereux,et al.  Measuring Taxes on Income from Capital: Evidence from the UK , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[8]  Henrik Jordahl,et al.  Optimal Utilitarian Taxation and Horizontal Equity , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[9]  Federico Etro,et al.  Globalization and Political Geography , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[10]  C. Blankart,et al.  The Deadlock of the EU Budget: An Economic Analysis of Ways in and Ways Out , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[11]  H. Kleven,et al.  The Marginal Cost of Public Funds in OECD Countries; Hours of Work Versus Labor Force Participation , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[12]  S. Voigt.  Explaining Constitutional Change , 1999 .

[13]  Edward Castronova,et al.  The Price of 'Man' and 'Woman': A Hedonic Pricing Model of Avatar Attributes in a Synthethic World , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[14]  Kai A. Konrad,et al.  Strategic Trade Policy and Merger Profitability , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[15]  T. Upmann,et al.  The Kalai-Smorodinsky Solution in Labor-Market Negotiations , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[16]  Michael P. Devereux,et al.  Measuring Taxes on Income from Capital , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[17]  Alvin E. Roth,et al.  An Experimental Analysis of Ending Rules in Internet Auctions , 2003 .

[18]  Vidar Christiansen,et al.  Is There a Case for Public Provision of Private Goods If Preferences are Heterogeneous? An Example with Day Care , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[19]  J. Davies,et al.  Measuring Effective Tax Rates on Human Capital: Methodology and an Application to Canada , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[20]  J. Falkinger,et al.  The Role of Public Infrastructure for Firm Location and International Outsourcing , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[21]  W. Steven Clark,et al.  Using Micro-Data to Assess Average Tax Rates , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[22]  J. Jimeno,et al.  Spanish Unemployment: The End of the Wild Ride? , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[23]  M. Dewatripont,et al.  Flexible integration: towards a more effective and democratic Europe , 1995 .

[24]  Vivek Ghosal,et al.  Firm and Establishment Volatility: The Role of Sunk Costs, Profit Uncertainty and Technological Change , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[25]  Bernd Huber,et al.  Capital Mobility and Tax Competition: A Survey , 2003 .

[26]  H. Ursprung,et al.  Globalisation, Competitive Governments, and Constitutional Choice in Europe , 2002, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[27]  Pierre Salmon.  Nations Conspiring against Themselves: an Interpretation of European Integration , 1993 .

[28]  A. Timmermann,et al.  Small Sample Properties of Forecasts from Autoregressive Models Under Structural Breaks , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[29]  M. Wooders,et al.  Hotelling Tax Competition , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[30]  Erik Berglöf,et al.  Built to Last: A Political Architecture for Europe , 2003 .

[31]  R. Vaubel.  The political economy of centralization and the European Community , 1992 .

[32]  C. Pissarides,et al.  Unemployment in Britain: A European Success Story , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[33]  P. Salmon.  Accounting for centralisation in the European Union: Niskanen, Monnet or Thatcher? , 2003 .

[34]  A. Breton.  Competitive Governments: An Economic Theory of Politics and Public Finance , 1997 .

[35]  G. Kirchgässner,et al.  Tax harmonization and tax competition in the European Union: Lessons from Switzerland , 1996 .

[36]  Carlo Perroni,et al.  Self-Enforcing International Agreements and Domestic Policy Credibility , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[37]  Neil Foster-McGregor,et al.  Does Venture Capital Investment Spur Employment Growth? , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[38]  Hans-Werner Sinn,et al.  Social Union, Convergence and Migration , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[39]  Harry Grubert,et al.  The Tax Burden on Cross-Border Investment: Company Strategies and Country Responses , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[40]  L. Bottazzi,et al.  Financing Entrepreneurial Firms in Europe: Facts, Issues, and Research Agenda , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[41]  K. Jørgensen.  The Social Construction of the Acquis Communautaire: A Cornerstone of the European Edifice , 2002 .

[42]  B. Ackerman.  The Rise of World Constitutionalism , 1997 .

[43]  T. Andersen,et al.  From Excess to Shortage - Recent Developments in the Danish Labour Market , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[44]  Hyun Park,et al.  Choosing Club Membership Under Tax Competition and Free Riding , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[45]  A. Lindbeck,et al.  An Essay on Welfare State Dynamics , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[46]  Kaniska Dam,et al.  The Principal-Agent Matching Market , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[47]  Pierre Salmon,et al.  Competition and structure : the political economy of collective decisions : essays in honor of Albert Breton , 2000 .

[48]  Gérard Roland,et al.  Transition and Economics: Politics, Markets, and Firms , 2000 .

[49]  An Economic Theory of Political Parties , 1986 .

[50]  Erkki Koskela,et al.  Stabilizing Competitive Cycles with Distortionary Taxation , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[51]  P. Salmon.  Assigning powers in the European Union in the light of yardstick competition among governments , 2003 .

[52]  Annalisa Luporini,et al.  Scholarships or Student Loans? Subsidizing Higher Education in the Presence of Moral Hazard , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[53]  P. Salmon.  Decentralization and supranationality: the case of the European Union , 2002 .

[54]  Hans Gersbach,et al.  Competitive Markets, Collective Decisions and Group Formation , 2003 .

[55]  Ronnie Schöb,et al.  The Double Dividend Hypothesis of Environmental Taxes: A Survey , 2003 .

[56]  F. Stähler,et al.  Market Entry Regulation and International Competition , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[57]  Christopher Heady,et al.  The 'Taxing Wages' Approach to Measuring the Tax Burden on Labour , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[58]  Hyun Park,et al.  On the Optimal Size of Public Sector Under Rent-Seeking Competition from State Coffers , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[59]  David Mckay.  Policy Legitimacy and Institutional Design: Comparative Lessons for theEuropean Union , 2000 .

[60]  G. Tabellini.  Principles of Policymaking in the European Union: An Economic Perspective , 2003 .

[61]  Yu-Fu Chen,et al.  Labour Demand in Germany: An Assessment of Non-Wage Labour Costs , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[62]  Marko Koethenbuerger,et al.  Tax Competition in a Fiscal Union with Decentralized Leadership , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[63]  Ronnie Schöb.  Workfare and Trade Unions: Labor Market Repercussions of Welfare Reform , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[64]  Carlo Scarpa,et al.  Irreversible Investments and Regulatory Risk , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[65]  Panagiotis Tsigaris,et al.  Choice of Tax Base Revisited: Cash Flow vs. Prepayment Approaches to Consumption Taxation , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[66]  Matthias Benz,et al.  Being Independent is a Great Thing: Subjective Evaluations of Self-Employment and Hierarchy , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[67]  S. Voigt.  Explaining Constitutional Change: A Positive Economics Approach , 1999 .

[68]  Wolfgang Peters,et al.  On the Frequency of Interior Cournot-Nash Equilibria in a Public Good Economy , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[69]  Matthias Wrede,et al.  Tax Deductibility of Commuting Expenses and Residential Land Use with More than One Center , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.