Why are representative democracies fiscally irresponsible?

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Why are representative democracies fiscally irresponsible?

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V.V. Chari
Harold Cole

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Abstract

We develop a model of a representative democracy in which a legislature makes collective decisions about local public goods expenditures and how they are financed. In our model of the political process legislators defer to spending requests of individual representatives, particularly committee chairmen, who tend to promote spending requests that benefit their own districts. Because legislators do not fully internalize the tax consequences of their individual spending proposals, there is a free rider problem, and as a result spending is excessively high. This leads legislators to prefer a higher level of debt to restrain excessive future spending.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in its series Staff Report with number 163.

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Date of creation: 1993
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmsr:163

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Keywords: Expenditures; Public;

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References listed on IDEAS
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V.V. Chari & Harold Cole, 1993. "A contribution to the theory of pork barrel spending," Staff Report 156, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
Weingast, Barry R & Shepsle, Kenneth A & Johnsen, Christopher, 1981. "The Political Economy of Benefits and Costs: A Neoclassical Approach to Distributive Politics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 642-64, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

Battaglini, Marco & Coate, Stephen, 2007. "A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation and Debt," Working Papers 07-04, Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Marco Battaglini & Stephen Coate, 2007. "A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation and Debt," Discussion Papers 1441, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science. [Downloadable!]
- Marco Battaglini & Steve Coate, 2006. "A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation and Debt," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000001094, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
- Marco Battaglini & Stephen Coate, 2006. "A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation and Debt," NBER Working Papers 12100, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
- Marco Battaglini & Stephen Coate, 2006. "A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation and Debt," NajEcon Working Paper Reviews 321307000000000026, www.najecon.org. [Downloadable!]
- Marco Battaglini & Stephen Coate, 2008. "A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation, and Debt," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(1), pages 201-36, March. [Downloadable!]
Baqir, Reza, 1999. "Districts, spillovers, and government overspending," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2192, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
Toshihiro Ihori & Jun-Ichi Itaya, 2004. "Fiscal Reconstruction and Local Government Financing," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 55-67, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Dirk Niepelt, 2005. "Starving the Beast? Intra-Generational Conflict and Balanced Budget Rules," Working Papers 05.04, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Niepelt, Dirk, 2007. "Starving the beast? Intra-generational conflict and balanced budget rules," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 145-159, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)

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