10.17889/E112067V1
Ujhelyi, Gergely
Replication data for: Civil Service Rules and Policy Choices: Evidence from US State Governments
ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
2014
10.1257/pol.6.2.338
10.1257/pol.6.2.338
1
This paper studies the policy impact of civil service regulations,
exploiting reforms undertaken by US state governments throughout
the twentieth century. These reforms replaced political patronage with
a civil service recruited based on merit and protected from politics.
I find that state politicians respond to these changes by spending
relatively less through the reformed state-level bureaucracies.
Instead, they allocate more funds to lower level governments. The
reallocation of expenditures leads to reduced long-term investment
by state governments.