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

Per Pettersson-Lidbom ()

Journal of Public Economics, 2012, vol. 96, issue 3, 269-278

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Government spending; Legislature size; Legislative policy-making; Distributive politics; Regression–discontinuity design; Panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (91)

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Working Paper: Does the Size of the Legislature Affect the Size of Government? Evidence from Two Natural Experiments (2004)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:96:y:2012:i:3:p:269-278

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2011.07.004

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