Working Paper: NBER ID: w8647
Authors: Alberto Alesina; Ignazio Angeloni; Ludger Schuknecht
Abstract: We construct a set of indicators to measure the policy-making role of the European Union (European Council, Parliament, Commission, Court of Justice, etc.), in a selected number of policy domains. Our goal is to examine the division of prerogatives between European institutions and national ones, in light of the implications of normative models and in relation to the preferences of European citizens. Our data confirm that the extent and the intensity of policy-making by the ED have increased sharply over the last 30 years. Such increase has taken place, at different speeds, and to different degrees, across policy domains. In recent times the areas that have expanded most are the most remote from the EEC's original mission of establishing a free market zone with common external trade policy. We conjecture that the resulting allocation may be partly inconsistent with normative criteria concerning the assignment of policies at different government levels, as laid out in the theoretical literature.
Keywords: European Union; policy making; centralization; governance
JEL Codes: H73; P16; F62
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| EU policy expansion in social protection (H55) | public resistance to integration (P39) |
| EU policy expansion (F55) | public reluctance towards further EU integration (F55) |
| EU's involvement in social protection and sectoral policies (J08) | inefficiencies in EU policy involvement (F55) |
| theoretical contributions by Alesina and Wacziarg (1999) and Alesina, Angeloni, and Etro (2001) (F55) | normative criteria for optimal allocation of policy responsibilities (H10) |