Legislative organization and government spending: cross-country evidence

The "Law of 1/n" posits that an increase in the number of elected representatives fuels excessive government spending. Despite its wide acceptance as a stylized fact, the Law of 1/n has received only limited empirical scrutiny, and the existing evidence for the American States provides mixed support for the thesis. This paper examines the Law of I In in bicameral and unicameral legislative structures using a cross-section of democratic countries. The results indicate that legislative size matters under both legislature structures, but bicameralism dampens the 1/n effect relative to unicameralism. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.