The Federal Budget: The Erosion of Bipartisan Fiscal Discipline

摘要

In his provocative paper, Professor Joyce points out that there has been an explosion of information about the federal budget over the last several decades, while both the budget process and macroeconomic budget outcomes have deteriorated. He argues that, contrary to expectations, more information has made the budget process dysfunctional and budget deficits worse. While he does not advocate suppressing information, he concludes that budget reformers should rethink their hopes that more information will lead to better choices and find some other (unspecified) way of improving budget decision making.