Expenditure Tradeoffs in the US States: A Pooled Analysis

Abstract

This study is a continuation of previous longitudinal analysis of expenditure tradeoffs in the American states. Here coefficients representing tradeoffs between the spending categories of highways, education, health, and welfare are used as dependent variables in a cross-sectional model to explain state differences in tradeoffs among these spending areas. The independent variables tested in the cross-sectional model represent political-strategic, organizational, and economic-financial characteristics of states. We found that a clear explanation of tradeoff behavior across states is somewhat elusive, but the variables used were better predictors of state differences for education and highways than for health and welfare. Furthermore, organizational variables appear to have the greatest impact on tradeoffs, followed by economic-financial and political-strategic variables.