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Rights without Resources: The Impact of Constitutional Social Rights on Social Spending

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  • Adam Chilton
  • Mila Versteeg

Abstract

Constitutions around the world have come to protect a growing number of social rights. This constitutionalization of social rights has generally been met with approval from academics, human-rights activists, and policy makers. But despite this widespread support, there is hardly any evidence on whether the inclusion of rights in constitutions changes how governments provide social services to their citizens. We take up this question by studying the effect of adopting the constitutional rights to education and health care on government spending. Using a data set of 196 countries' constitutional rights and data from the World Development Indicators, we employ a variety of empirical tests to examine if the rights to education and health care are associated with increases in government spending. Our results suggest that the adoption of these social rights is not associated with statistically significant or substantively meaningful increases in government spending on education or health care.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Chilton & Mila Versteeg, 2017. "Rights without Resources: The Impact of Constitutional Social Rights on Social Spending," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 713-748.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:doi:10.1086/696826
    DOI: 10.1086/696826
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    Cited by:

    1. Katarzyna Metelska‐Szaniawska, 2021. "Post‐socialist constitutions: The de jure–de facto gap, its effects and determinantsa," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(2), pages 175-196, April.
    2. Konstantin Chatziathanasiou & Svenja Hippel & Michael Kurschilgen, 2022. "Does the Threat of Overthrow Discipline the Elites? Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(2), pages 289-320.
    3. Justin T. Callais & Andrew T. Young, 2024. "Revolutionary Constitutions: are they revolutionary in terms of constitutional design?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 200(3), pages 423-455, September.
    4. Katarzyna Metelska-Szaniawska & Jacek Lewkowicz, 2021. "Post-socialist “illiberal democracies”: do de jure constitutional rights matter?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 233-265, June.
    5. Voigt, Stefan, 2020. "Mind the Gap – Analyzing the Divergence between Constitutional Text and Constitutional Reality," ILE Working Paper Series 32, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.
    6. Konstantin Chatziathanasiou & Svenja Hippel & Michael Kurschilgen, 2020. "Do rights to resistance discipline the elites? An experiment on the threat of overthrow," Munich Papers in Political Economy 08, Munich School of Politics and Public Policy and the School of Management at the Technical University of Munich.

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