Government reorganization for economy and efficiency :

Abstract

Government reorganizations both at the national level and the state level are often criticized for failing to save money or reduce government employment. It has been suggested that government reorganizations have a variety of purposes most of which are more important than economy and efficiency. Reorganization can centralize decision-making authority so that chief executives have more control over the bureaucracy. Reorganizations can also be used to change the direction of programs by creating administrative arrangements supportive of certain policies. This dissertation investigated the non-efficiency outcomes of government reorganization to determine if government reorganization has an impact on public policy.

The data for this study comes from twelve major executive reorganizations in state government over the past twenty years. The type and extent of these reorganizations are thoroughly documented in public sources. Using a variety of expenditure policies, two comparisons were made. First, each state was compared with itself over time to determine if policy changes occur following reorganization. The data were analyzed over a twenty-year time period so that chance individual year variations would not affect the results. Second, reorganized states were match-paired with unreorganized states to provide comparisons that reflect national and regional policy changes. States were paired on the basis of size, wealth, region, and other variables that affect public policy. The results of this quasi-experimental interrupted time-series analysis indicate that structural reorganization has no impact on state expenditure policy.