Spending and cutting are two different worlds: experimental evidence from Danish local councils

Kurt Houlberg; Asmus Leth Olsen; Lene Holm Pedersen

doi:10.1080/03003930.2016.1189414

Spending and cutting are two different worlds: experimental evidence from Danish local councils

Kurt Houlberg^*, Asmus Leth Olsen, Lene Holm Pedersen

^*Corresponding author for this work

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article investigates politicians’ preferences for cutting and spending. The research questions are where do politicians prefer to cut, where do they prefer to spend and how is this influenced by political ideology? These questions are investigated in a large-scale survey experiment fielded to Danish local councillors, who are randomly assigned to a decision-making situation, where the block grant provided to their municipality is either increased or reduced. The results show that the politicians’ preferences for cutting and spending are asymmetric, in the sense that the policy areas, which are assigned the least cuts when the grant is reduced, are rarely the ones which are assigned extra money when the grant is increased. Areas with well-organised interests and a target group which is perceived as deserving are granted more money, whereas policy areas where the target group is perceived as less deserving receive the highest cuts. Ideology matters as left-wing councillors prefer more vague categories when cutting and prioritise childcare and unemployment policies when increasing spending. In contrast, right-wing councillors prefer to cut administration and increase spending on roads.

Original language	English
Journal	Local Government Studies
Volume	42
Issue number	5
Pages (from-to)	821-841
Number of pages	21
ISSN	0300-3930
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2016.1189414
Publication status	Published - 2 Sept 2016

Keywords

Budgeting
cutting
deservingness
local councillors
spending
spending preferences
tractability

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1080/03003930.2016.1189414

Cite this

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title = "Spending and cutting are two different worlds: experimental evidence from Danish local councils",

abstract = "This article investigates politicians{\textquoteright} preferences for cutting and spending. The research questions are where do politicians prefer to cut, where do they prefer to spend and how is this influenced by political ideology? These questions are investigated in a large-scale survey experiment fielded to Danish local councillors, who are randomly assigned to a decision-making situation, where the block grant provided to their municipality is either increased or reduced. The results show that the politicians{\textquoteright} preferences for cutting and spending are asymmetric, in the sense that the policy areas, which are assigned the least cuts when the grant is reduced, are rarely the ones which are assigned extra money when the grant is increased. Areas with well-organised interests and a target group which is perceived as deserving are granted more money, whereas policy areas where the target group is perceived as less deserving receive the highest cuts. Ideology matters as left-wing councillors prefer more vague categories when cutting and prioritise childcare and unemployment policies when increasing spending. In contrast, right-wing councillors prefer to cut administration and increase spending on roads.",

keywords = "Budgeting, cutting, deservingness, local councillors, spending, spending preferences, tractability",

author = "Kurt Houlberg and Olsen, {Asmus Leth} and Pedersen, {Lene Holm}",

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doi = "10.1080/03003930.2016.1189414",

language = "English",

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AU - Pedersen, Lene Holm

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N2 - This article investigates politicians’ preferences for cutting and spending. The research questions are where do politicians prefer to cut, where do they prefer to spend and how is this influenced by political ideology? These questions are investigated in a large-scale survey experiment fielded to Danish local councillors, who are randomly assigned to a decision-making situation, where the block grant provided to their municipality is either increased or reduced. The results show that the politicians’ preferences for cutting and spending are asymmetric, in the sense that the policy areas, which are assigned the least cuts when the grant is reduced, are rarely the ones which are assigned extra money when the grant is increased. Areas with well-organised interests and a target group which is perceived as deserving are granted more money, whereas policy areas where the target group is perceived as less deserving receive the highest cuts. Ideology matters as left-wing councillors prefer more vague categories when cutting and prioritise childcare and unemployment policies when increasing spending. In contrast, right-wing councillors prefer to cut administration and increase spending on roads.

AB - This article investigates politicians’ preferences for cutting and spending. The research questions are where do politicians prefer to cut, where do they prefer to spend and how is this influenced by political ideology? These questions are investigated in a large-scale survey experiment fielded to Danish local councillors, who are randomly assigned to a decision-making situation, where the block grant provided to their municipality is either increased or reduced. The results show that the politicians’ preferences for cutting and spending are asymmetric, in the sense that the policy areas, which are assigned the least cuts when the grant is reduced, are rarely the ones which are assigned extra money when the grant is increased. Areas with well-organised interests and a target group which is perceived as deserving are granted more money, whereas policy areas where the target group is perceived as less deserving receive the highest cuts. Ideology matters as left-wing councillors prefer more vague categories when cutting and prioritise childcare and unemployment policies when increasing spending. In contrast, right-wing councillors prefer to cut administration and increase spending on roads.

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KW - cutting

KW - deservingness

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KW - spending

KW - spending preferences

KW - tractability

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Spending and cutting are two different worlds: experimental evidence from Danish local councils

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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