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The Administrative Costs of Congressional Earmarking: The Case of the Office of Naval Research
Author(s) -
Savage James D.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.01991.x
Subject(s) - transaction cost , public administration , government (linguistics) , politics , executive branch , public economics , focus (optics) , economics , business , political science , finance , law , linguistics , philosophy , physics , optics
Discussions about congressional earmarking often focus on their direct costs in the federal government's appropriations bills. This article shows that this conventional view neglects the administrative costs of earmarking by examining the extensive transaction and opportunity costs that come with the political, budgetary, and programmatic management of these earmarked projects in Congress and in the Office of Naval Research. One policy conclusion from this study is that the executive branch should make these costs transparent, as they remain largely hidden from public discussion and the consideration of the federal budget.