IMF Working Papers

Districting and Government Overspending

By Reza Baqir

August 1, 2001

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Reza Baqir. Districting and Government Overspending, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2001) accessed November 23, 2024
Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

The common-pool problem is a central issue in the relationship between the political structure of jurisdictions and the size of public spending. Models predict that, other things being equal, greater political districting of a jurisdiction raises the scale of government. This paper presents new evidence on this and related predictions from a cross-section of city governments in the United States. The main finding is that one additional legislator is associated, on average, with 3 percent larger expenditures per capita. Evidence also suggests that forms of government with strong executives, particularly those with veto powers, break the link between districting and government size.

Subject: Expenditure, Income, Income inequality, Labor, National accounts, Personal income, Population and demographics, Public employment

Keywords: City government, City government structure, Comparative politics, Electoral systems, Fiscal institutions, Form of government, Government employment regression, Government expenditure, Government program, Government scale, Government size, Government spending, Income, Income inequality, Manger-council forms of government, Mayor-council forms of government entail, Personal income, Public employment, Scale of government, State decentralization, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    48

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2001/096

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA0962001

  • ISBN:

    9781451851915

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941

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