The Political Economy of Pork-Barrel Spending

This dissertation consists of five papers which examine the impact pork-barrel spending has on legislative decision-making. In chapter 1, I introduce the theory behind pork-barrel spending, legislative coalitions and other similar topics. In chapter 2, I determine if pork-barrel spending has any impact on state employment levels. I use both a spatial and non-spatial modeling methodology to answer the question. Chapter 3 examines the relationship between the amount of pork-barrel spending appropriated by the Senator and the amount of money the Senator is able to fundraise. Chapter 4 integrates the results from chapter 3 to develop two-stage and three-stage models which estimate electoral success. The fifth and final chapter concludes the dissertation by using the results from the other chapters to determine whether or not pork-barrel spending suffers from the Tragedy of the Commons