Do Institutions Matter? The Impact of Budget Expertise on State Fiscal Responsibility

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Emrich, Colin
• 署名单位: Gwynedd Mercy University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH AND THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1053-1858
• DOI: 10.1093/jopart/muac044
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 606-615
• 关键词: redistricting commissions; electoral accountability; POLICY; inference

摘要

Do governmental institutions constrain state actors? I investigate this question by examining the relationship between the design of state legislative fiscal offices and the health of state budgets. These budgetary bodies serve a supporting role for legislatures, designed to advance sound fiscal policy and sustainable public finance. With an original data set encompassing all state legislative budgetary bodies from 1963 to 2014, I estimate the causal effects of nonpartisan fiscal offices on budget surpluses with a generalized difference-in-differences estimator. My results show that the presence of these fiscal offices within legislatures does not affect a state's fiscal well-being. This result holds even when legislative fiscal offices are relatively empowered in the budget process, raising doubts about how state lawmakers use nonpartisan budgetary information in funding the government.