Competition through indicators of regional sustainability in a federal system
In: sofia-Diskussionsbeiträge zur Institutionenanalyse, Band 02-6
Abstract
"Indicators of regional sustainability can attempt to inform regional actors by
pointing out potentials of sustainable development. In this respect, indicators
are a heuristic instrument for designing policy instruments. But theoretically
sustainability indicators could also be applied in horizontal and vertical fiscal
relations to allocate funds among regions. Then they could induce competition
either by setting standards or else by evaluating relative efforts towards
sustainable development. In a way, this seems to be comparable to ecotaxation:
An incentive provides for the lack of altruistic behavior to do what is
best for all. And reforming fiscal relations according to sustainability indicators
would come close to a revolution. Unfortunately, chances are low of fitting
complex indicator systems with rather simple measures of current fiscal relations
and their structural conditions. Specifically, we show that sustainable
development indicators suffer four fundamental problems if applied to fiscal
relations. All four are arising from the fact that highly diverse information
must be condensed into one single form of information to give the incentive: money." [author's abstract]
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