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On the Cost of Opportunistic Behavior in the Public Sector: A General-Equilibrium Approach

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  • ALEKSANDAR VASILEV

Abstract

This paper studies the wasteful effect of bureaucracy on the economy by addressing the link between opportunistic behavior of government bureaucrats and the public sector wage bill. In particular, public officials are modeled as individuals competing for a larger share of those public funds. A simple extraction technology in the gov- ernment administration is introduced in a standard Real-Business-Cycle (RBC) setup augmented with detailed public sector. The model is calibrated to German data for the period 1970-2007. The main findings are: (i) the model performs well vis-a-vis the data; (ii) Due to the existence of a significant public sector wage premium and the high public sector employment, a substantial amount of working time is spent in opportunistic activities, which in turn leads to significant losses in terms of output; (iii) The model-based loss measures obtained for the EU-12 countries are highly-correlated to indices of bureaucratic inefficiency.
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Suggested Citation

  • Aleksandar Vasilev, 2017. "On the Cost of Opportunistic Behavior in the Public Sector: A General-Equilibrium Approach," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(2), pages 565-582, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:19:y:2017:i:2:p:565-582
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/jpet.2017.19.issue-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Aleksandar Vasilev, 2017. "VAT Evasion in Bulgaria: A General-Equilibrium Approach," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 8(2).
    2. Aleksandar Vasilev, 2020. "A Real-business-cycle Model with a Stochastic Capital Share: Lessons for Bulgaria (1999–2018)," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 14(1), pages 107-121, February.
    3. Vasilev Aleksandar, 2021. "A Real-Business-Cycle Model with Institutional Quality: The Case of Bulgaria (1999–2018)," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 72(1), pages 51-69, April.
    4. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2018. "Optimal fiscal policy in the presence of VAT evasion: the case of Bulgaria," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 68(4), pages 399-414.
    5. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2022. "How Important Are Consumer Confidence Shocks for the Propagation of Business Cycles in Bulgaria?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 63(10-12), pages 589-603.
    6. Ravi Radhakrishnan, 2022. "Public expenditure allocation, lobbying, and growth," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(4), pages 756-780, August.
    7. Aleksandar VASILEV, 2019. "Taxation And Welfare: Measuring The Effect Of Bulgaria’S 2007-08 Corporate-Personal Income Tax Reforms," Theoretical and Practical Research in the Economic Fields, ASERS Publishing, vol. 10(2), pages 113-117.
    8. Aleksandar Vasilev & Hristina Manolova, 2019. "Wage Dynamics and Bulgaria Co-Movement and Causality," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 17(1), pages 91-127.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E69 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Other
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets

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