Constituency size and the growth of public expenditures: the case of the United Kingdom

The growth of government is possibly the most vexing question of public finance. Since the downfall of communism there has been little debate that excessive government spending causes problems in the economy, but there is little consensus about what causes government to grow, how to prevent government from growing beyond efficient levels, or even exactly what set of problems excessive government spending causes. This lack of consensus is certainly not from a lack of research effort. Hundreds of articles and numerous books have investigated the question of government spending growth and now there are even several publications that have reviewed and cataloged the competing theories and evidence, again without a consensus emerging.1