Does the size of the legislature affect the size of government? Evidence from two natural experiments

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Pettersson-Lidbom, Per
• 署名单位: Stockholm University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2011.07.004
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 269-278
• 关键词: Government spending; Legislature size; Legislative policy-making; distributive politics; Regression-discontinuity design; panel data

摘要

This paper makes use of regression discontinuity designs to estimate the effect of the number of legislators on the size of government. The results indicate a negative effect, i.e., the larger the size of the legislature the smaller is the size of government. This runs counter to conventional wisdom. One potential explanation is that more legislators can better control a budget maximizing bureaucracy. I present evidence that is consistent with the proposed mechanism. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.