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An empirical assessment of the factor-supplier pressure group hypothesis

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  • Thomas Dilorenzo

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper has been to empirically assess Tullock's factor-supplier pressure group hypothesis. Theory predicted that public employees would be most able to use their political power to expand public spending levels at the local level of government. Therefore, in contrast to the two previous attempts to test this hypothesis, the empirical tests focused on the growth oflocal public spending. The test results lead to the conclusion that the political power of public employee groups is an important determinant of the growth of local public spending, although the extent of their influence is as yet unknown. General control personnel and sanitation workers were found to be exceptionally successful at influencing budgetary growth. In terms of the former group these results lead me to suspect that the results of Bennett and Johnson's (1980) research on federal government growth apply to the local public sector as well. That is, while there may be debate over how much local public spending has increased as a percentage of net national product, its composition has changed in that proportionally more resources are being used for the purposes of administrative rule-making. As is the case with federal governmental regulation, increased regulation of the local public economy is sure to have substantial allocative and distributive effects which form an agenda for future research. Copyright Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1981

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Dilorenzo, 1981. "An empirical assessment of the factor-supplier pressure group hypothesis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 559-568, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:37:y:1981:i:3:p:559-568
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00133752
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Brennan,Geoffrey & Buchanan,James M., 2006. "The Power to Tax," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521027922.
    2. James Buchanan & Gordon Tullock, 1977. "The expanding public sector: Wagner squared," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 147-150, September.
    3. Ganti, Subrahmanyam & Kolluri, Bharat R, 1979. "Wagner's Law of Public Expenditures: Some Efficient Results for the United States," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 34(2), pages 225-233.
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    Cited by:

    1. David Nellor, 1984. "Public bureau budgets and jurisdiction size: An empirical note," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 175-183, January.
    2. Rodolfo Gonzalez & Roger Folsom & Stephen Mehay, 1989. "Bureaucracy, publicness and local government expenditures revisited: Comment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 71-77, July.
    3. Gabriel Obermann, 1987. "Capital intensity and the federal sector: Some further evidence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 193-199, January.
    4. 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.
    5. Mark Schneider, 1989. "Intercity competition and the size of the local public work force," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 253-265, December.

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