When Less Means More: Policy Accumulation, Administrative Capacities, and Policy Performance

Fernández-i-Marín Xavier, Hinterleitner Markus, Knill Christoph () and Steinebach Yves
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Fernández-i-Marín Xavier: Department of Law, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Hinterleitner Markus: Public Administration, Universite de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Knill Christoph: Political Science, 9183 LMU Munich , Munich, Germany
Steinebach Yves: Political Science, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

The Economists' Voice, 2025, vol. 22, issue 1, 123-133

Abstract: Democratic governments have consistently introduced new policies to address various societal, economic, and environmental issues. However, this ongoing expansion of policy measures risks overburdening the public administrations responsible for their execution. To explore this challenge, we examine how the relationship between the size of sectoral policy portfolios and available implementation capacities impacts the effectiveness of sectoral policies. Our analysis of environmental policies across OECD countries reveals a growing disparity between the number of policies requiring implementation and the resources available to carry them out, which in turn negatively affects policy performance.

Keywords: policy accumulation; bureeaucratic overload; policy performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1515/ev-2025-0003

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