Transaction Costs of the U.S. Congress' Funding Process: Choosing BetweenSeparate or Combined Authorization/Appropriation Committee Structure

摘要

This paper examines the following question: Are both the authorization andappropriation committees needed for the US Congress to fund the federal government. Before answering this question the processes, the concepts of transaction cost economics, and the transaction costs economics literature are reviewed. Then a transaction cost model similar to that suggested by Barry Weingast and William Marshall in their 1988 Journal of Political Economy article 'The Industrial Organization of Congress; or, Why Legislatures, Like Firms, Are Not Organized as Markets' is applied. The costs of keeping the two processes in separate committees rather than integrating them into one is explored. A conclusion is drawn that the combined costs of the congressional authorization and appropriation committees would be reduced by integrating the two committees into one.