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The Relationship between Congressional Spending and Tenure with an Application to Term Limits

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  • Reed, W Robert
  • Schansberg, D. Eric
  • Wilbanks, James
  • Zhu, Zhen

Abstract

Whether term limits would increase or decrease federal spending depends on the reason for the causal relationship between tenure and spending. The authors investigate this subject by empirically studying congressional spending and tenure for all United States House and Senate members who entered Congress between the 94th and 102nd Congresses (1975-92). As their measure of congressional spending the authors use the National Taxpayers Union's Congressional Spending Scores. Their study finds that a statistically significant relationship exists between congressional spending and tenure for some groups of congressmen. The authors then test three hypotheses relating tenure and spending. No single hypothesis is consistent with all of their empirical results. Nevertheless, the small sizes of the empirical effects estimated in this study suggest that term limits would have an inconsequential impact on the level of federal spending--at least via the 'moral hazard' mechanisms described in this paper. Copyright 1998 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:94:y:1998:i:1-2:p:85-104
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    Cited by:

    1. Timothy Besley & Anne Case, 2003. "Political Institutions and Policy Choices: Evidence from the United States," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 7-73, March.
    2. Michael A. Ellis & D. Eric Schansberg, 1999. "The Determinants of State Government Debt Financing," Public Finance Review, , vol. 27(6), pages 571-587, November.
    3. Yogesh Uppal, 2010. "Estimating Incumbency Effects In U.S. State Legislatures: A Quasi‐Experimental Study," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 180-199, July.
    4. Stephanie Owings & Rainald Borck, 2000. "Legislative Professionalism and Government Spending: Do Citizen Legislators Really Spend Less?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 28(3), pages 210-225, May.
    5. Edward López & R. Jewell, 2007. "Strategic institutional choice: Voters, states, and congressional term limits," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 137-157, July.
    6. 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.
    7. Dalle Nogare, Chiara & Ricciuti, Roberto, 2011. "Do term limits affect fiscal policy choices?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 681-692.
    8. Linda Gonçalves Veiga & Francisco veiga, 2016. "Term limits at the local government level," NIPE Working Papers 7/2016, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Chiara Dalle Nogare & Roberto Ricciuti, 2008. "Term Limits: Do they really Affect Fiscal Policy Choices?," CESifo Working Paper Series 2199, CESifo.

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