Do Rival Political Parties Enforce Government Efficiency? Canada, 1867-2021*

J. Stephen Ferris () and Marcel Voia

No 22-04, Carleton Economic Papers from Carleton University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper investigates the role of inter-party rivalry in enhancing federal government efficiency in post-Confederation Canada. It tests and finds confirmation in the data for two hypotheses.The first is that the ex post size of the first versus second seat share marginis a useful metric of the effectiveness of political partiesinpolicingthe incumbent’sspendingbehaviouroverits period of tenure.The second is the hypothesis thatincumbent party shirking is decreased by greaterel ectoral contestability and contestability is related to the expected number of competing parties nonmonotonically. Classification

Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2022-05-05
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Published: Carleton Economics Working Papers

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