Does Direct Democracy Reduce the Size of Government? New Evidence from Historical Data, 1890–2000
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9704560 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patricia Funk (0000-0002-0263-7879, Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Christina Gathmann (0000-0002-9158-0375, University of Mannheim, CESifo and IZA) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 121 |
| Issue | 557 |
| Pages | 1252-1280 |
| Publication date | 2011-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Economic Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2011.02451.x |
| OpenAlex | W3122054202 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 35 |
| References cited | 32 |
Using new historical data from Swiss cantons, we estimate the effect of direct democracy on government spending. We use fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity and new instruments to address potential endogeneity concerns. We find that direct democracy constrains canton spending but its effect is more modest than previously suggested. The instrumental variable estimates show that a mandatory budget referendum reduces canton expenditures by 12%. Lowering signature requirements for the voter initiative by 1% reduces canton spending by 0.6%. We find little evidence that direct democracy at the canton level results in higher local spending or decentralisation
Control (management · Control variable · Decentralization · Democracy · Direct democracy · Econometrics · Economics · Endogeneity · Government (linguistics · Government spending · Instrumental variable · Political science · Politics · Public economics · Referendum · Statistics · Welfare · Economic Policies and Impacts · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Local Government Finance and Decentralization
Understanding Public Debt Preferences
Experimental Research Design in the Study of Electoral Systems
Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy
The Impact of Political Regime and Institutions on Government Size in Middle-Income Countries
Bribery Environments and Manufacturing SME Efficiency
The initiative, referendum, and distribution of income
Is money where the fun ends? Material interests and individuals’ preference for direct democracy
Fiscal Rules Cause Lower Debt
Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors
Populism's Original Sin
Populism’s original sin
Political stability and fiscal policy
Income tax schedule and redistribution in direct democracies – the Swiss case
The Partisan Composition of Cantonal Governments in Switzerland, 1848‐2017. A New Data Set
Taking the initiative
Informing and inquiring
Direct democracy and resource allocation
Relaxing electoral constraints in local education funding
Gobierno abierto
Rules alone won't do
The Consequences of Direct Democracy for the Balance of Power between State and Local Governments in the United States
Public policy and the initiative and referendum
Standing on the shoulders of giants or science? Lessons from ordoliberalism
Signature requirements and citizen initiatives
Political alignment and intergovernmental transfers in parliamentary systems
Empowering the principal
Assessing the stability of fiscal attitudes
Does Direct Democracy Hurt Immigrant Minorities? Evidence from Naturalization Decisions in Switzerland
A Race to the Middle
On the Fiscal Sustainability of Swiss Cantons, 1905–2017
Direct democracy and government size
The hidden cost of direct democracy
Civic initiatives in the context of legal uncertainty
Direct democracy, coalition size and public spending
State capture from below? The contradictory effects of decentralisation on public spending
For the Many or the Few
The Economic Effects of Constitutions
Kantonale Demokratien im Vergleich
Budget referendums and government spending
Voters as Fiscal Conservatives
Centralized versus decentralized provision of local public goods
Institutional approaches to public expenditure
Bureaucrats Versus Voters
Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression
How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?
The Calculus of Consent
Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effect of Police on Crime
Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors
Deflating Swiss Prices over the Past Five Centuries
The impact of citizen influence on local government expenditure
Initiatives and government expenditures
Fiscal Effects of the Voter Initiative
The Political Economy of Benefits and Costs
State Responses to Fiscal Crises
Economic Effects of Constitutions
Unnatural Experiments? Estimating the Incidence of Endogenous Policies
Legislative Response to the Threat of Popular Initiatives
Direct Democracy and Local Public Goods
| Unique citing works | 35 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,94 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2026 (19) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 34 |