Does longer deliberation by the legislature increase the efficiency of the government budget?

Abstract

This article examines the influence of the length of the legislature's budget deliberation period on budget efficiency, using a novel dataset from South Korea, where the legislature's budgetary review period was extended from 60 to 90 days. Adopting the budgeted but unused funds as an indicator of budget inefficiency, the authors found that budget efficiency improved when the deliberation period by the legislature was lengthened. Furthermore, the positive relationship between the length of the deliberation period and budget efficiency was strengthened when the group of lawmakers reviewing the budget was more diverse.