Bureaucrats or Politicians? Part I: A Single Policy Task

@article{Alesina2007BureaucratsOP,
  title={Bureaucrats or Politicians? Part I: A Single Policy Task},
  author={Alberto F. Alesina and Guido Tabellini},
  journal={The American Economic Review},
  year={2007},
  volume={97},
  pages={169-179}
}
This paper investigates the normative criteria that guide the allocation of a policy task to an elected politician versus an independent bureaucrat. The bureaucrat is preferable for technical tasks for which ability is more important than effort, or if there is great uncertainty about whether the policymaker has the required abilities. The optimal allocation of redistributive tasks is ambiguous, and depends on how the bureaucrat can be instructed. But irrespective of the normative conclusion… 
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References

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Bureaucrats or Politicians? Part II: Multiple Policy Tasks

Bureaucrats or Politicians? Comment

Alesina and Tabellini (2007) investigate the normative criteria for allocating policy tasks to bureaucrats versus politicians. While they establish criteria with respect to a number of parameters,…

Delegating Powers: A Transaction Cost Politics Approach to Policy Making under Separate Powers

In this path-breaking book, David Epstein and Sharyn O'Halloran produce the first unified theory of policy making between the legislative and executive branches. Examining major US policy initiatives…

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