IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecopol/v8y1996i3p191-211.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is There A “Culture Of Spending” In Congress?

Author

Listed:
  • Arsene Aka
  • W. Robert Reed
  • D. Eric Schansberg
  • Zhen Zhu

Abstract

This study empirically tests the “Culture of Spending” hypothesis (Payne, 199la). According to this hypothesis, the longer congressmen stay in office, the more likely they are to support federal spending. Spending behavior in this study is measured by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) Congressional Spending Score. Samples are drawn from annual spending scores for all U.S. representatives and senators who served in office between 1975 and 1993. This study finds no statistical support for the hypothesis that congressmen have an increasing propensity to support federal spending the longer they stay in office. Furthermore, we are able to explain why other studies obtain results different from ours.

Suggested Citation

  • Arsene Aka & W. Robert Reed & D. Eric Schansberg & Zhen Zhu, 1996. "Is There A “Culture Of Spending” In Congress?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(3), pages 191-211, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecopol:v:8:y:1996:i:3:p:191-211
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0343.1996.tb00127.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0343.1996.tb00127.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0343.1996.tb00127.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglas Hart & Michael Munger, 1989. "Declining electoral competitiveness in the House of Representatives: The differential impact of improved transportation technology," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 217-228, June.
    2. Hibbing, John R., 1991. "Contours of the Modern Congressional Career," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(2), pages 405-428, June.
    3. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    4. Krehbiel, Keith, 1993. "Constituency Characteristics and Legislative Preferences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 76(1-2), pages 21-37, June.
    5. Schansberg, D Eric, 1994. "Moving Out of the House: An Analysis of Congressional Quits," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(3), pages 445-456, July.
    6. W. Reed & D. Schansberg & James Wilbanks & Zhen Zhu, 1998. "The relationship between congressional spending and tenure with an application to term limits," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 94(1), pages 85-104, January.
    7. Anderson, T. W. & Hsiao, Cheng, 1982. "Formulation and estimation of dynamic models using panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 47-82, January.
    8. Kalt, Joseph P & Zupan, Mark A, 1990. "The Apparent Ideological Behavior of Legislators: Testing for Principal-Agent Slack in Political Institutions," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(1), pages 103-131, April.
    9. Lott, John R, Jr & Davis, Michael L, 1992. "A Critical Review and an Extension of the Political Shirking Literature," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 74(4), pages 461-484, December.
    10. North, Douglass C., 1985. "The growth of government in the United States: An economic historian's perspective," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 383-399, December.
    11. Borcherding, Thomas E., 1985. "The causes of government expenditure growth: A survey of the U.S. evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 359-382, December.
    12. Goff, Brian L & Grier, Kevin B, 1993. "On the (Mis)measurement of Legislator Ideology and Shirking," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 76(1-2), pages 5-20, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. W. Reed & D. Schansberg & James Wilbanks & Zhen Zhu, 1998. "The relationship between congressional spending and tenure with an application to term limits," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 94(1), pages 85-104, January.
    2. Edward López & R. Jewell, 2007. "Strategic institutional choice: Voters, states, and congressional term limits," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 137-157, July.
    3. H. Erler, 2007. "Legislative term limits and state spending," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 479-494, December.
    4. Rex Pjesky & Daniel Sutter, 2002. "Searching for cincinnatus: Representatives' backgrounds and voting behavior," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 30(1), pages 74-86, March.
    5. James C. Garand & Rebekah Myers & Renee Renegar, 2016. "Seniority, political experience, and support for government spending in the US House: a culture of spending?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 168(3), pages 217-238, September.
    6. Edward López & Carlos Ramírez, 2008. "Mr. Smith and the economy: the influence of economic conditions on individual legislator voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 1-17, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Potters, Jan & Sloof, Randolph, 1996. "Interest groups: A survey of empirical models that try to assess their influence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 403-442, November.
    2. Reed, W Robert & Schansberg, D. Eric & Wilbanks, James & Zhu, Zhen, 1998. "The Relationship between Congressional Spending and Tenure with an Application to Term Limits," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 94(1-2), pages 85-104, January.
    3. Dennis, Christopher & Medoff, Marshall H. & Magnera, Michael, 2008. "Constituents' economic interests and senator support for spending limitations," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2443-2453, December.
    4. Andrew Clark & Fabrice Etile, 1999. "The Effect of Health Information on Cigarette Consumption: Evidence from British Panel Data," Cahiers de la Maison des Sciences Economiques bla99090, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1).
    5. MAÏ ASSAN CHEDI, Maman, 2022. "Does Defence Expenditure Affect Education and Health expenditures in Saharan Africa?," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 10(4), September.
    6. Yunus, Mohammad, 2009. "EU Ban, HACCP Compliance and Shrimp Exports from Bangladesh," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 32(3), pages 41-58, September.
    7. Iqbal Hussain, Hafezali & Mohd Farid, Shamsudin & Noor H, Jabarullah, 2016. "Non Linear Speed of Adjustment to Lead Leverage Levels and the Timing Element in Equity Issues: Empirical Evidence from the UK," MPRA Paper 79261, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Vassilis Tselios, 2009. "Education And Income Inequality In The Regions Of The European Union," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 411-437, August.
    9. Iñaki Mauleón, 1987. "Problemas prácticos en el tratamiento econométrico de datos "cross-section"," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 11(1), pages 41-94, January.
    10. Dennis, Christopher, 1998. "Support for campaign spending limitations in the U. S. senate: The role of party, ideology and electoral security," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 641-649.
    11. Mayer, Alexander, 2022. "On the local power of some tests of strict exogeneity in linear fixed effects models," Econometrics and Statistics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 49-74.
    12. Ernesto Dal Bó & Martín Rossi, 2008. "Term Length and Political Performance," NBER Working Papers 14511, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Tanger, Shaun M. & Zeng, Peng & Morse, Wayde & Laband, David N., 2011. "Macroeconomic conditions in the U.S. and congressional voting on environmental policy: 1970-2008," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 1109-1120, April.
    14. Min-Seok Pang & Ali Tafti & M. S. Krishnan, 2016. "Do CIO IT Budgets Explain Bigger or Smaller Governments? Theory and Evidence from U.S. State Governments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(4), pages 1020-1041, April.
    15. Felix Fitzroy & Michael Funke, 1998. "Skills, Wages and Employment in East and West Germany," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 459-467.
    16. Lado-Sestayo, Rubén & Otero-González, Luis & Vivel-Búa, Milagros & Martorell-Cunill, Onofre, 2016. "Impact of location on profitability in the Spanish hotel sector," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 405-415.
    17. Dennis, Christopher & Bishin, Benjamin & Nicolaou, Politimy, 2000. "Constituent diversity and congress: the case of NAFTA," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 349-360, July.
    18. César Calderón & Alberto Chong, 2004. "Volume and Quality of Infrastructure and the Distribution of Income: An Empirical Investigation," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 50(1), pages 87-106, March.
    19. Gavin Cameron, 2005. "The Sun Also Rises: Productivity Convergence Between Japan and the USA," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 387-408, December.
    20. Günther G. Schulze & Heinrich W. Ursprung, 1999. "Globalisation of the Economy and the Nation State," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 295-352, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecopol:v:8:y:1996:i:3:p:191-211. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0954-1985 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.