The authors' aim is to estimate the redistributive, stabilising, and insurance effects of the ‘federal’ budgets of Australia, Spain, the USA, and the European Union, at the territorial level. This analysis was carried out for the budget as a whole through regional fiscal balances, and separately for revenues and expenditures. The methodology used was a panel data econometric model. The authors' main conclusion is that in all the cases considered the expenditures have higher effects—redistributive, and combined stabilising and insurance—than the revenues, and that the size of the whole European Union budget should be increased in order to enable the development of redistributive policies.
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