Berry, William and David Lowery. “The Growing Cost of Government: A Test of Two Explanations.” Social Science Quarterly, 65 (September 1984): 735-49.

During the postwar era, the price of goods and services has increased more rapidly in the public sector than in the private sector. Two explanations have been offered for this phenomenon. Beck (1976) has argued that the processes commonly referred to as “Baumol’s disease” account for the increased relative costs of government goods and services, while Buchanan and Tullock (1977) have pointed to the voting power of bureaucrats as the key culprit. This study tests both explanations via econometric analysis of postwar U.S. data and finds much greater support for the Beck/Baumol hypothesis.