Party in the House? Examining the Effects of Political Control on State Government Spending

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In this study I test several assertions commonly made about Republican and Democratic spending preferences. Specifically, using annual data from 1971–2001, I examine how party control at the state level affects overall expenditure growth and the shares of expenditure allotted to various classes of programs, including education, welfare, healthcare, transportation, and public safety. I incorporate into my regressions a wide array of control variables and statistical corrections, including explicit modeling of spatial dependency. My results generally align with political rhetoric and prior research. Democrats appear to spend significantly more on welfare and education and less on public safety than Republicans. However, I also find that Democratic control of government causes less expansion of the public sector, in opposition to what many believe. The robustness of this result is relatively low, though, and the coefficient may be simply an artifact of my methodology and sample choice.

    Item Description
    Name(s)
    Thesis advisor: Jacobsen, Joyce
    Date
    April 15, 2012
    Extent
    97 pages
    Language
    eng
    Genre
    Physical Form
    electronic
    Discipline
    Rights and Use
    In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted
    Digital Collection
    PID
    ir:867