Understanding public participatory budgeting behavior: how cognitive biases shape public budget preferences

Wenbin Li, Jia Yang and Xiaoxuan Chen

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, 2026, vol. 38, issue 3, 395-411

Abstract: PurposeThis study investigates how individual-level cognitive biases shape budgetary preferences in public participatory budgeting (PB), offering a micro-level perspective that complements the traditional research focus on collective decision-making processes.Design/methodology/approachConducting an empirical generalization replication of Overmans and Grimmelikhuijsen's (2025) experiment, this study examines how cognitive biases (anchoring, herding, mental accounting and loss aversion) influence public budget allocations in local Chinese contexts. Controlled experimental scenarios were employed to analyze participants' budgetary preferences and identify systematic deviations resulting from underlying cognitive biases.FindingsThe results indicate that public budgeting decisions are significantly shaped by multiple cognitive biases: allocations exhibit anchoring effects from initial numerical values, demonstrate herding tendencies and generally favor gain-generating projects. Notably, the study found no statistically significant evidence of mental accounting or loss aversion, suggesting that the manifestation of cognitive biases is highly context- and subject-dependent.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the behavioral public administration literature through systematic validation of cognitive bias mechanisms in PB context, offering an integrated framework that bridges behavioral science and budgetary decision-making. Furthermore, the findings provide actionable policy guidance for developing bias-aware budgeting systems and establishing decision architectures that effectively reconcile behavioral insights with rational fiscal principles.

Keywords: Participatory budgeting; Budgeting behavior; Cognitive biases; Budget preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/jpbafm/article/38/3/395/13 ... ticipatory-budgeting (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/jpbafm/article-pdf/38/3/39 ... m-08-2025-0232en.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jpbafm:jpbafm-08-2025-0232

DOI: 10.1108/JPBAFM-08-2025-0232

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management is currently edited by Dr Giuseppe Grossi

More articles in Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().