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<p>Using deaths and resignations to identify spells where congressional districts were unrepresented in the House of Representatives, we investigate the effect of these vacancies on the <i>post-passage</i> appropriations process. We find that lack of representation leads to a substantial 4.5% decline in the intensive margin of appropriations (new contract funding) but no effect on the extensive margin (number of granting agencies). However, this effect is concentrated among those districts receiving money from more agencies. For this half of the distribution, the decline is a more substantial 12.4%. This holds for both initial awards and renegotiations to existing contracts. The effect does not seem to be driven by a higher elasticity of particular funding agencies. It would seem that districts with more relationships to handle suffer a greater decline in appropriations when they are without a representative simply because there are more opportunities to be missed.</p>

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Dead money: measuring the influence of representatives on post-passage appropriations

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月30日

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  • Adhitya Venkatraman,
  • Cameron Shelton

摘要

Using deaths and resignations to identify spells where congressional districts were unrepresented in the House of Representatives, we investigate the effect of these vacancies on the post-passage appropriations process. We find that lack of representation leads to a substantial 4.5% decline in the intensive margin of appropriations (new contract funding) but no effect on the extensive margin (number of granting agencies). However, this effect is concentrated among those districts receiving money from more agencies. For this half of the distribution, the decline is a more substantial 12.4%. This holds for both initial awards and renegotiations to existing contracts. The effect does not seem to be driven by a higher elasticity of particular funding agencies. It would seem that districts with more relationships to handle suffer a greater decline in appropriations when they are without a representative simply because there are more opportunities to be missed.