Universalism and the Value of Political Power

• Main Author: KOH, Yumi
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Universalism; Distributive legislation; Legislative bargaining; Political Economy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/2035; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soe_research/article/3034/viewcontent/universalism_aug2017.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

While legislatures typically use majority rule to allocate a budget in distributive legislation, near-unanimous consent over the broad allocation of benefits is pervasive. I develop a game-theoretic model where players strategically interact in a universal coalition to determine allocations, with non-cooperative bargaining as a threat point for the breakdown of cooperation. To quantify the effects of political power and actual needs on the agreed-upon allocation, I structurally estimate the model using the "Bridge Bill Capital Budget" in 1992. I find that 9.58% of the budget would be allocated differently if allocations were determined only based on actual needs.