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The Relationship between Congressional Spending and Tenure with an Application to Term Limits

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 Reed, W Robert, et al

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Abstract

Whether term limits would increase or decrease federal spending depends on the reason for the causal relationship between tenure and spending. The authors investigate this subject by empirically studying congressional spending and tenure for all United States House and Senate members who entered Congress between the 94th and 102nd Congresses (1975-92). As their measure of congressional spending the authors use the National Taxpayers Union's Congressional Spending Scores. Their study finds that a statistically significant relationship exists between congressional spending and tenure for some groups of congressmen. The authors then test three hypotheses relating tenure and spending. No single hypothesis is consistent with all of their empirical results. Nevertheless, the small sizes of the empirical effects estimated in this study suggest that term limits would have an inconsequential impact on the level of federal spending--at least via the 'moral hazard' mechanisms described in this paper. Copyright 1998 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal Public Choice.

Volume (Year): 94 (1998)
Issue (Month): 1-2 (January)
Pages: 85-104
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Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:94:y:1998:i:1-2:p:85-104

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Kalt, Joseph P & Zupan, Mark A, 1984. "Capture and Ideology in the Economic Theory of Politics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 279-300, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Lott, John R, Jr & Davis, Michael L, 1992. " A Critical Review and an Extension of the Political Shirking Literature," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 74(4), pages 461-84, December.
  3. Peltzman, Sam, 1985. "An Economic Interpretation of the History of Congressional Voting in the Twentieth Century," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(4), pages 656-75, September.
  4. Dick, Andrew R. & Lott, John Jr., 1993. "Reconciling voters' behavior with legislative term limits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 1-14, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Stratmann, Thomas, 1992. "The Effects of Logrolling on Congressional Voting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(5), pages 1162-76, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Jung, Gi-Ryong & Kenny, Lawrence W. & Lott, John Jr., 1994. "An explanation for why senators from the same state vote differently so frequently," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 65-96, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Rex Pjesky & Daniel Sutter, 2002. "Searching for cincinnatus: Representatives' backgrounds and voting behavior," Atlantic Economic Journal, International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 30(1), pages 74-86, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Edward López & R. Jewell, 2007. "Strategic institutional choice: Voters, states, and congressional term limits," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 137-157, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Edward López & Carlos Ramírez, 2008. "Mr. Smith and the economy: the influence of economic conditions on individual legislator voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 1-17, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Peter Calcagno & Monica Escaleras, 2007. "Does Stringency of Gubernatorial Term Limits Matter?," Working Papers 2, Department of Economics and Finance, College of Charleston, revised Sep 2007. [Downloadable!]
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