Intergovernmental Grants and Public Expenditures: Evidence from a Survey Experiment

Abstract

The relationship between intergovernmental grants and public expenditures is one of the most studied phenomena in the local public finance literature. However, little is known about whether the impact of unconditional grants is fundamentally different from that of other sources of municipal revenue. We study this question by means of a large-scale randomized survey experiment among Danish local politicians, which allows for a comparison of the impact of changes in various sources of municipal revenue. Our findings challenge the conventional conception in the public finance literature that money works differently depending on which sector they are generated in. Instead, ideology plays an important role in explaining how local politicians want to allocate resources when faced with changes in local government revenue.

Equal Access to the Top? Representative Bureaucracy and Politicians’ Recruitment Preferences for Top Administrative Staff

“…In this respect, representative bureaucracy scholars may find it helpful to consult the literature on hiring discrimination, since a number of sociodemographic characteristics have proven important to discrimination in this literature, including disability, religion, and union affiliation (Baert 2017). Finally, the findings add to the growing literature on partisan and ideological biases in political decision making (e.g., Baekgaard and Kjaergaard 2016;Baekgaard et al 2017;Blom-Hansen et al 2018;Demaj 2017;George et al 2018;Nielsen and Moynihan 2017;Porter and Rogowski Forthcoming;Sheffer et al 2017) by emphasizing how ideological biases also matter beyond purely political decisions for more organizational matters.…”

Emotional Responses to Bureaucratic Red Tape

“…Behavioral public administration scholars have recently begun to study how intuitive thinking biases evaluations of public sector performance and affects subsequent attitudes and behaviors both for citizens (e.g., Andersen and Hjortskov ; Marvel ) and politicians (e.g., Baekgaard and Kjaergaard ; George et al ). Despite the looming prominence of emotional processes in this body of literature, it lacks empirical evidence on discrete emotions.…”

Placering af økonomisk beslutnings-kompetence internt i danske kommuner

“…Som naevnt er der endelig en gruppe af studier, der fokuserer på budgetsamarbejdet imellem staten og kommunerne (Kjaergaard, 2016;Rieper og Blom-Hansen, 2010;Blom-Hansen, 2008, 2002b, 1998, 1996Mou-ritzen, 2008;Lotz, 2007). Hertil hører også studier, der undersøger, hvordan nationale beslutninger vedrørende den kommunale økonomi forplanter sig i de økonomiske beslutninger, der bliver truffet på kommunalt niveau (Baekgaard og Kjaergaard, 2016;Baek et al, 2016;Kjaergaard, 2015;Foged, 2015;Blom-Hansen et al, 2014b;Lotz, 2001).…”