Competition between companies tends to be beneficial, but is this true for competition between States in a world with global financial markets, low transport costs, and increasing migration? Sinn compares systems competition between private companies and systems competition between States.

List of Tables and Figures.

Preface.

1 Competition among States.

2 Taxes and Public Infrastructure Goods.

3 The Erosion of the Welfare State.

4 Social Dumping in the Transformation Process?

5 Ecological Competition.

6 The Competition of Product Standards.

7 Limited Liability, Risk Taking and the Competition of Bank Regulators.

8 The Competition of Competition Rules.

Index.

Competition between companies tends to be beneficial for the general public, but is this also true for the competition between states in a world with global financial markets, low transport costs, and increasing migration? In this book, Sinn provides a solid economic analysis of the competitive forces at work and addresses how they affect public goods provision, income redistribution, environmental policy, safety standards, banking regulation and even competition policy itself. Identifying the deficiencies of the competition between systems, the author develops a number of correcting policy measures ranging from specific harmonization proposals to rules that would help make competition work.

"Professor Sinn offers a sweeping view of the future global economy, where states compete for capital in a race for growth. Old policies, fiscal and structural, will be revised to attract productive resources and to prevent their exit. Once more the author joins lucid exposition and analytical rigor in a splendid piece of contemporary economics."
—Richard Musgrave, Harvard University

"The authors of competitive interactions among and within governments and nations requires a breadth of perspective and learning not often found among today's hyperspecialists. Hans-Werner Sinn has thought long and written extensively on these matters. This book provides a concise introduction to these important issues, a compelling demonstration that economics has a lot to say about them, and a glimpse of the large analytical tasks beyond the horizon."
—David E. Wildasin, University of Kentucky