The Impact of Voter Initiatives on Economic Activity

Authors

S. Brock Blomberg, Claremont McKenna CollegeFollow
Gregory Hess, Claremont McKenna CollegeFollow
Akila Weerapana, Wellesley College

Document Type

Article

Department

Economics (CMC)

Publication Date

2004

Abstract

Recent studies have claimed that states with initiative systems of legislation use this more direct form of democracy to improve productive resource allocation. This paper compares the economic performance of states with initiatives to states that do not have initiatives. We first construct a simple growth model to identify the channel through which initiatives play an important role in determining economic activity; we then test the implications of this model using data for the 48 contiguous United States over the years 1969–1986. Our findings suggest that states with initiative systems waste between 20% and 30% fewer resources than do non-initiative states resulting in better economic performance in terms of higher GDP growth and faster convergence.

Rights Information

© 2004 Elsevier B.V.

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

DOI

10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2003.02.003

Recommended Citation

S.Brock Blomberg, Gregory D. Hess, Akila Weerapana, The impact of voter initiatives on economic activity, European Journal of Political Economy, Volume 20, Issue 1, March 2004, Pages 207-226, ISSN 0176-2680, 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2003.02.003. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0176268003000727)