Wpływ instytucji demokracji bezpośredniej na zatrudnienie w sektorze publicznym w szwajcarskich kantonach
The Impact of Direct Democracy on Public Sector Employment: Evidence From Swiss Cantons

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of direct democratic institutions: mandatory fiscal referendum and popular initiative on public sector employment at the cantonal level in Switzerland. With direct forms of public participation becoming increasingly widespread in the world, economic effects of direct legislation pose a vital research problem. This article focuses specifically on the issue of public spending. The results from the empirical analysis have been confronted with the outcomes of a similar study for the United States and with other analyses concerning the effects of direct democracy on government spending. This article introduces an econometric model estimated on annual panel data for the 26 Swiss cantons (2011–2018). It is shown that mandatory fiscal referenda have a dampening effect on public sector employment at the cantonal level, whereas the opposite is true for the popular initiative. Although mandatory referendum is the only statistically significant variable of the two, the stimulating effect of popular initiative on public spending has been confirmed by empirical evidence from related studies.

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