Districting and Government Overspending
48 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 2006
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Districting and Government Overspending
Date Written: August 2001
Abstract
The common-pool problem is a central issue in the relationship between the political structure of jurisdictions and the size of public spending. Models predict that, other things being equal, greater political districting of a jurisdiction raises the scale of government. This paper presents new evidence on this and related predictions from a cross-section of city governments in the United States. The main finding is that one additional legislator is associated, on average, with 3 percent larger expenditures per capita. Evidence also suggests that forms of government with strong executives, particularly those with veto powers, break the link between districting and government size.
Keywords: government spending, fiscal institutions, electoral systems, comparative politics
JEL Classification: H11, H41, H72
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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