Tiresome subsidies — the nuisance of subsidies distorting international competition

Abstract

Subsidies are not only a nuisance to the tax payer financing them but in a world economy in the process of integration they are also distorting competitive conditions. Most annoyingly it is not only impossible to abolish subsidies but, what is even worse, they are propagating themselves. Any competitive advantage the economy of a State with a propensity to subsidise obtains, gives the competitors in other countries an appetite for similarly generous support—a demand that in a pluralistic society will easily find a willing ear. In the following contributions our authors will try to give a survey of subsidisation in Federal Germany, France, the United States and Britain, and to answer the question of to what extent the subsidisation of certain economic branches is influencing competitiveness on an international level.