کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
969644 | 1479415 | 2016 | 15 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
• Divided government is often thought of as causing legislative deadlock.
• This paper uses data on US welfare reforms at the US state level to test this view.
• Divided governments are 25% more likely to reform than unified governments.
• Several robustness checks confirm this counter-intuitive finding.
• Case study evidence suggests an explanation based on policy competition.
Divided government is often thought of as causing legislative deadlock. I investigate the link between divided government and economic reforms using a novel data set on welfare reforms in US states between 1978 and 2010. Panel data regressions show that, under divided government, a US state is around 25% more likely to adopt a welfare reform than under unified government. Several robustness checks confirm this counter-intuitive finding. Case study evidence suggests an explanation based on policy competition between governor, senate, and house.
Journal: Journal of Public Economics - Volume 142, October 2016, Pages 24–38