Comparative Politics and Public Finance

IGIER Working Paper No. 114

37 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 1997

See all articles by Torsten Persson

Torsten Persson

Stockholm University - Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES); London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Gérard Roland

University of California, Berkeley - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Guido Tabellini

Bocconi University - Department of Economics; Bocconi University - IGIER - Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research; Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research (CESifo)

Date Written: September 1997

Abstract

We present a model of electoral accountability to compare the public finance outcomes under a presidential-congressional and a parliamentary system. In a presidential-congressional system, contrary to a parliamentary system, there are no endogenous incentives for legislative cohesion, but this allows for a clearer separation of powers. These features lead to clear differences in the public finance performance of the two systems. A Parliamentary system has redistribution towards a majority, less underprovision of public goods, more waste and a higher burden of taxation, whereas a presidential-congressional system has redistribution towards a minority, more underprovision of public goods, but less waste and a smaller size of government.

JEL Classification: A10, H00, D72, D78

Suggested Citation

Persson, Torsten and Roland, Gérard and Tabellini, Guido, Comparative Politics and Public Finance (September 1997). IGIER Working Paper No. 114, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=82669 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.82669

Torsten Persson (Contact Author)

Stockholm University - Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES) ( email )

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Gérard Roland

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Guido Tabellini

Bocconi University - Department of Economics ( email )

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