Download This PaperCitizenship for Sale: A Dilemma of Rights
20 Pages Posted: 28 Jan 2019
Date Written: January 28, 2019
Abstract
Motivated by the commercialization of citizenship rights in the European Union, we study the market for citizenship in a confederation or union of countries if the countries have full sovereignty over the right to grant national citizenship, and if this national citizenship endows members with benefits and citizenship rights of the confederation. We characterize the unique equilibrium and evaluate it from a welfare point of view. We identify country size and local and federal benefits as well as differences in local and union-wide cost externalities as the key determinants. We also consider how the union as a whole can respond to the efficiency problems such a market creates.
Keywords: citizenship-for-sale, commercialization of citizenship, European Union, Malta
JEL Classification: F15, F53, H77
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Kai A. Konrad (Contact Author)
Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance ( email )
Marstallplatz 1
Munich, 80539
Germany
HOME PAGE: http://www.tax.mpg.de/en/pub/home.cfm
CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)
Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, 81679
Germany
IZA Institute of Labor Economics
P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, 53072
Germany
CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)
Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany