IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fer/resrep/114.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Spending Preferences of Public Sector Officials. Survey Evidence from the Finnish Central Government

Author

Listed:
  • Kiander, Jaakko
  • Venetoklis, Takis

Abstract

We examine the determinants that shape the spending preferences of public sector employees on several budgetary appropriations. Following Niskanen's (1971, 1975, 1994) budget maximising theory, we test whether these employees prefer larger budgetary appropriations rather than less. We measure their preferences to increase their own bureau's appropriations and compare those against their preferences for other bureaux's appropriations. The empirical evidence is gathered via a mail survey targeting high level officials from different Ministries in Finland. The analysis of the responses suggests that Niskanen's theory is supported, in part.

Suggested Citation

  • Kiander, Jaakko & Venetoklis, Takis, 2004. "Spending Preferences of Public Sector Officials. Survey Evidence from the Finnish Central Government," Research Reports 114, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:fer:resrep:114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/148576
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rich, Michael J., 1989. "Distributive Politics and the Allocation of Federal Grants," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(1), pages 193-213, March.
    2. Marsh, David & Smith, M. J. & Richards, D., 2000. "Bureaucrats, Politicians and Reform in Whitehall: Analysing the Bureau-Shaping Model," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(3), pages 461-482, July.
    3. Casas-Pardo, Jose & Puchades-Navarro, Miguel, 2001. "A Critical Comment on Niskanen's Model," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 107(1-2), pages 147-167, April.
    4. Alberto F. Alesina & Roberto Perotti, 1999. "Budget Deficits and Budget Institutions," NBER Chapters, in: Fiscal Institutions and Fiscal Performance, pages 13-36, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Niskanen, William A, 1975. "Bureaucrats and Politicians," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(3), pages 617-643, December.
    6. William Gould, 2000. "Interpreting logistic regression in all its forms," Stata Technical Bulletin, StataCorp LLC, vol. 9(53).
    7. Patrick A. McNutt, 1996. "The Economics of Public Choice," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 58.
    8. José Casas-Pardo & Miguel Puchades-Navarro, 2001. "A Critical Comment on Niskanen's Model," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 147-167, April.
    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. Järviö, Maija-Liisa & Luoma, Kalevi & Räty, Tarmo & Aaltonen, Juho, 2005. "Productivity and its Drivers in Finnish Primary Care 1988-2003," Research Reports 118, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Lindemann, Henrik, 2015. "Regulatory Objectives and the Intensity of Unbundling in Electricity Markets," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-544, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    3. Lindemann, Henrik, 2015. "Budgetary Interests and the Degree of Unbundling in Electricity Markets - An Empirical Analysis for OECD Countries," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-543, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.

    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. Aleksandar Vasilev, 2013. "On the cost of rent-seeking by government bureaucrats in a Real-Business-Cycle framework," Working Papers 2013_20, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    2. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2013. "Essays on Real Business Cycle Modeling and the Public Sector," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 130522, March.
    3. Venetoklis, Takis, 2001. "Business Subsidies and Bureaucratic Behaviour - A Revised Approach," Research Reports 83, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Miltos Makris, 2003. "Administrative Bureaus with Standard Operating Procedures," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 03/062, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    5. Miltiadis Makris, 2006. "Political authority, expertise and government bureaucracies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 267-284, June.
    6. Nelson Marconi & Paulo Arvate & João Moura Neto & Paulo Palombo, 2009. "Vertical transfers and the appropriation of resources by the bureaucracy: the case of Brazilian state governments," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 65-85, October.
    7. Venetoklis, Takis, 2001. "Business Subsidies and Bureaucratic Behaviour," Research Reports 79, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Sanghee Park, 2018. "Understanding Public Sector Debt: Financial Vicious Circle under the Soft Budget Constraint," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 71-92, March.
    9. repec:prg:jnlcfu:v:2022:y:2022:i:1:id:572 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. STEVEN C. DELLER & David G. Hinds & Donald L. Hinman, 2001. "Local Public Services in Wisconsin: Alternatives for Municipalities with a Focus on Privatization," Wisconsin-Madison Agricultural and Applied Economics Staff Papers 441, Wisconsin-Madison Agricultural and Applied Economics Department.
    11. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3573-3630 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Michał Mackiewicz, 2006. "Przyczyny deficytu finansów publicznych w świetle nowej ekonomii politycznej," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 1-22.
    13. Randall Holcombe, 2005. "Government growth in the twenty-first century," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 95-114, July.
    14. Ando, Amy, 1998. "Delay on the Path to the Endangered Species List: Do Costs and Benefits Matter," RFF Working Paper Series dp-97-43-rev, Resources for the Future.
    15. repec:cdl:oplwec:qt9pq4m8ts is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Fabio Canova & Evi Pappa, 2006. "Does It Cost to Be Virtuous? The Macroeconomic Effects of Fiscal Constraints," NBER Chapters, in: NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics 2004, pages 327-370, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. David H. Good, 1992. "Productive Efficiency and Contract Management: Some Evidence From Public Transit Agencies," Public Finance Review, , vol. 20(2), pages 195-215, April.
    18. Zvi Hercowitz & Michel Strawczynski, 1998. "On The Cyclical Bias In Government Spending," Bank of Israel Working Papers 1998.06, Bank of Israel.
    19. Christian Bjørnskov & Axel Dreher & Justina Fischer, 2008. "Cross-country determinants of life satisfaction: exploring different determinants across groups in society," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(1), pages 119-173, January.
    20. António Afonso & Ana Venâncio, 2020. "Local territorial reform and regional spending efficiency," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(6), pages 888-910, November.
    21. Ehrhart, Karl-Martin & Gardner, Roy & von Hagen, Jurgen & Keser, Claudia, 2007. "Budget processes: Theory and experimental evidence," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 279-295, May.
    22. Lindemann, Henrik, 2015. "Regulatory Objectives and the Intensity of Unbundling in Electricity Markets," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-544, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    23. Andrew Feltenstein & Nour Abdul-Razzak & Jeffrey Condon & Biplab Kumar Datta, 2015. "Tax Evasion, the Provision of Public Infrastructure and Growth: A General Equilibrium Approach to Two Very Different Countries, Egypt and Mauritius," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 24(suppl_2), pages 43-72.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:fer:resrep:114. 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: Anita Niskanen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vatttfi.html .

    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.