The impact of voter initiatives on economic activity

Recent studies have claimed that states with initiative systems of legislation use this more direct form of democracy to improve productive resource allocation. This paper compares the economic performance of states with initiatives to states that do not have initiatives. We first construct a simple...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European Journal of Political Economy 2004-03, Vol.20 (1), p.207-226
Main Authors: Blomberg, S.Brock, Hess, Gregory D., Weerapana, Akila
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic activity
Economic Development
Economic growth
Growth
Initiatives
Legislation
Political economy
Political science
Public expenditure
Referendum
Resource Allocation
States (Political Subdivisions)
United States of America
Voting
Voting behaviour
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Recent studies have claimed that states with initiative systems of legislation use this more direct form of democracy to improve productive resource allocation. This paper compares the economic performance of states with initiatives to states that do not have initiatives. We first construct a simple growth model to identify the channel through which initiatives play an important role in determining economic activity; we then test the implications of this model using data for the 48 contiguous United States over the years 1969–1986. Our findings suggest that states with initiative systems waste between 20% and 30% fewer resources than do non-initiative states resulting in better economic performance in terms of higher GDP growth and faster convergence.
ISSN:0176-2680
1873-5703
DOI:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2003.02.003