Do Expiring Budgets Lead to Wasteful Year-End Spending? Evidence from Federal Procurement
Many organizations have budgets that expire at the end of the fiscal year and may face incentives to rush to spend resources on low quality projects at year’s end. We test these predictions using data on procurement spending by the U.S. federal government. Spending in the last week of the year is 4.9 times higher than the rest-of-the-year weekly average, and year-end information technology projects have substantially lower quality ratings. We also analyze the gains from allowing agencies to roll over unused funds into the next fiscal year.
Non-Technical Summaries
- ...IT projects that were procured in the last week of the fiscal year were between two and six times more likely to have a lower quality...
Published Versions
Jeffrey B. Liebman & Neale Mahoney, 2017. "Do Expiring Budgets Lead to Wasteful Year-End Spending? Evidence from Federal Procurement," American Economic Review, vol 107(11), pages 3510-3549.
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