Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Asymmetric Information
In: American journal of political science, Band 31, Heft 4, S. 796
ISSN: 1540-5907
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In: American journal of political science, Band 31, Heft 4, S. 796
ISSN: 1540-5907
In: American political science review, Band 81, Heft 3, S. 873
ISSN: 0003-0554
In: American political science review, Band 79, Heft 4, S. 1041-1060
ISSN: 1537-5943
The empirical literature on the control of bureaus notes that politicians have difficulty observing bureaucratic output, but this insight is rarely represented informal models. To analyze how bureaus use this uncertainty strategically, we develop a model of expertise-based agenda control, building on the Niskanen (1971) and Miller and Moe (1983) tradition. We show that under some plausible conditions, bureaus will underestimate the benefits, and overestimate the costs, of their programs. In the model, politicians are neither passive nor omniscient: they anticipate the bureau's strategic behavior and establish a monitoring system to counteract it. This possibility of detection changes the bureau's behavior: even imperfect monitoring reduces the bureau's deception of the legislature, whether or not the legislature's demand for the bureau's services is concealed. Moreover, uncertainty by itself matters: if the legislature makes it harder for a risk-averse bureau chief to predict demand or penalty, the bureau will restrain its deception.
In: American political science review, Band 79, Heft 4, S. 1041
ISSN: 0003-0554
In: American political science review, Band 106, Heft 2, S. 367-386
ISSN: 0003-0554