TY - JOUR A1 - Bernecker, Andreas T1 - Divided we reform? Evidence from US welfare policies T2 - Journal of Public Economics N2 - Divided government is often thought of as causing legislative deadlock. I investigate the link between divided government and economic reforms using a novel data set on welfare reforms in US states between 1978 and 2010. Panel data regressions show that, under divided government, a US state is around 25% more likely to adopt a welfare reform than under unified government. Several robustness checks confirm this counter-intuitive finding. Case study evidence suggests an explanation based on policy competition between governor, senate, and house. Y1 - 2016 UR - https://opus.bibliothek.fh-aachen.de/opus4/frontdoor/index/index/docId/8755 SN - 0047-2727 VL - 142 SP - 24 EP - 38 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -