Gasto particularista en bienes públicos locales: índice de desviación

Abstract

This article compares particularistic and programmed government spending. The two types of measures classify the benefits of policies as particularistic if they are exclusive goods or if they are determined by political variables. This article contains an index of particularistic expenditure on local public goods, measured as a deviation from the program. It applies this index to the supply of basic services from selected sub-national administrations in Mexico and Argentina. It shows that this index is less likely to over- or under-estimate particularistic and programmatic expenditure than existing measures.