Towards A Predictive Theory of Government Expenditure: Us Domestic Appropriations

Otto A. Davis, M. A. H. Dempster and Aaron Wildavsky

British Journal of Political Science, 1974, vol. 4, issue 4, 419-452

Abstract: The project on which this paper reports is aimed not only at increased understanding of the United States federal budget process, but also at predicting government expenditures in total and by bureau with a view to their determination within United States national econometric models. Estimates of likely expenditures using standard econometric techniques are poor, both in absolute terms and in comparison with our own work. Management of the economy should be improved by the use of predictors based on considering budgeting as a political process that is responsive to economic and social conditions. Use of mathematical models in the social sciences should be furthered, not by arguing their hypothetical utility, but by demonstrating that they work. The proof is in the prediction.

Date: 1974
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