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Aggregating Spending Preferences: An Empirical Analysis of Party Preferences in Norwegian Local Governments

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Abstract

To understand the role of political parties in public budgetmaking, we need separate data about spending preferences andbudgetary outcomes. In this paper we employ such data todiscriminate between different models of how competing partypreferences are transformed into policy outcomes. In the firststep of the analysis data on politicians' spending preferencesare used to estimate the desired allocation of each party. Inthe second step the desired allocations are used as inputs ina separate analysis of the decision-making process inNorwegian local councils.

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Borge, LE., Sørensen, R.J. Aggregating Spending Preferences: An Empirical Analysis of Party Preferences in Norwegian Local Governments. Public Choice 110, 225–243 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013061714243

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