I develop models in which a minimum winning coalition decides on the level of government spending, where the Coase theorem holds amongst members of the winning coalition. An increase in the supermajority requirement has potentially conflicting effects on spending. A higher requirement increases...

Small U.S. states are over-represented in the Senate and over-weighted in the electoral college. Atlas et al. (1995) have drawn attention to the effect of the over-representation of small states in the Senate by showing that per capita federal expenditure is positively related to per capita...

Research on the distribution of federal expenditures has provided mixed evidence showing that states with more legislators who belong to the president's party and states with more legislators in the chamber majority tend to receive a larger allocation of federal funds. We add to this research by...

With the election of 1994, the Republican party gained control of both houses of the U.S. Congress for the first time since 1954. In this paper, we analyze whether this change in party control had significant effects on the determinants of federal spending at the state level. To perform this...