Do Expiring Budgets Lead to Wasteful Year-End Spending? Evidence from Federal Procurement

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Liebman, Jeffrey B.; Mahoney, Neale
• 署名单位: Harvard University; University of Chicago
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20131296
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 3510-3549
• 关键词: consumption

摘要

Many organizations have budgets that expire at the end of the fiscal year and may face incentives to rush to spend resources on low-quality projects at year's end. We test these predictions using data on procurement spending by the US federal government. Spending in the last week of the year is 4.9 times higher than the rest-of-the-year weekly average, and year-end information technology projects have substantially lower quality ratings. We also analyze the gains from allowing agencies to roll over unused funds into the next fiscal year.