The European Union and the Member States: An Empirical Analysis of Europeans’ Preferences for Competences Allocation

Posted: 17 Mar 2009

See all articles by Floriana Cerniglia

Floriana Cerniglia

University of Milan, Bicocca - Faculty of Economics; Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology & Social Sciences (CISEPS); Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS)

Laura Pagani

University of Milan, Bicocca - Faculty of Economics; Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology & Social Sciences (CISEPS); Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS)

Date Written: March 2009

Abstract

In this article, we empirically study the preferences of European citizens concerning the allocation of powers between the European Union (EU) and the Member States using Eurobarometer data from 1995 to 2003. Both descriptive and econometric analysis highlights a ranking of countries according to the number of issues citizens want to delegate to EU (which we call Europeanism). More specifically, the more pro-European countries are those from Southern Europe while the less pro-European countries are those in Scandinavia, Denmark, and Luxemburg. Econometric analysis shows that this country effect is largely linked to the quality of the countries’ national government institutions. We find also a positive relationship between Europeanism and education, the degree of information of citizens, and left wing affiliation. For some policy domains, we also estimate probit equations for citizens’ preferred allocation of powers and we find that the countries’ Europeanism ranking varies with the area considered. (JEL codes: H11, H77)

Keywords: European Union, fiscal federalism

Suggested Citation

Cerniglia, Floriana and Pagani, Laura, The European Union and the Member States: An Empirical Analysis of Europeans’ Preferences for Competences Allocation (March 2009). CESifo Economic Studies, Vol. 55, Issue 1, pp. 197-232, 2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1359551 or http://dx.doi.org/ifn033

Floriana Cerniglia (Contact Author)

University of Milan, Bicocca - Faculty of Economics ( email )

Italy

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology & Social Sciences (CISEPS) ( email )

Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Milano, 20126
Italy

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS) ( email )

Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Milan, 20126
Italy

Laura Pagani

University of Milan, Bicocca - Faculty of Economics ( email )

Italy

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology & Social Sciences (CISEPS) ( email )

Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Milano, 20126
Italy

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS) ( email )

Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Milan, 20126
Italy

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
384
PlumX Metrics