Legislature Size, Bicameralism and Government Spending:Evidence from Democratic Countries

Roberto Ricciuti ()
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Roberto Ricciuti: Department of Economics, Royal Holloway, University of London

No 04/08, Royal Holloway, University of London: Discussion Papers in Economics from Department of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London

Abstract: In this paper we study the relationship between legislature size with respect to general government and welfare spending. According to the theory, legislature size has an indefinite effect on government spending because logrolling and transaction costs have canceling effects. Bicameralism is expected to have a negative effect because of the increased transaction cost of finding a viable majority in two houses with different constituencies. We use a cross-section of 75 countries over the period 1990-1998 controlling for some institutional features that differ among countries. We find that both legislature size and bicameralism do not have a significant effect on the two types of spending.

Keywords: legislature size; bicameralism; interest groups; government spending. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2004-06, Revised 2004-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol and nep-reg
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