How Successful is Participatory Budgeting in Promoting Social Equity? Evidence from New York City

Abstract

This study examines how successful the NYC’s participatory budgeting (PB) has been in promoting social equity in its city council districts. Drawing on secondary data coming from NYC council data and American Community Survey, this study specifically examines how successful PB has been in engaging under-represented groups in its decision-making process, and in allocating funds equitably. Findings suggest that districts with a higher percentage of Asian-American and mixed race residents have a higher percentage of PB voters. The study finds that African–Americans, residents of Hispanic origin and women were not significant predictors of PB voters. Additionally, results indicate that districts with a higher percentage of people living below the poverty level and more Asian-American residents allocate more funds to PB projects. Other under-represented groups such as foreign born population and youth between 14 and 18 years of age did not have a statistically significant relationship with neither PB voters nor funding.

Who is Interested in Participating in Participatory Budgeting?

“…For example, Spada (2009) finds that the policy consequences of PB are concentrated in the first few years after it is implemented. Kuenneke and Scutelnicu (2021) find that PB did not yield higher levels of redistribution in districts with lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Calabrese, Williams, and Gupta (2020) studied the PBNYC program and argue that the potential policy effects of PB processes may only manifest if decision-making power is truly in the hands of the publica condition not met in New York where PB decisions are not binding and final spending decisions are made by legislators.…”

“…Pape and Lim (2019) find that Hispanic and African American residents are underrepresented among Chicago residents who vote in the PB process. Similarly in the case of PBNYC, representation of non-White residents is no better than it is in elections (Kuenneke and Scutelnicu 2021;Lerner and Secondo 2012;Stewart et al 2014). However, we note that ethnoracial identity remains closely related to socioeconomic status in the United Statesa pattern that may help to explain aggregate differences in participation rates across groups.…”

The future of public sector accounting research. A polyphonic debate

“…The literature on social equity has shown that the decisions made by public organisations can, and often do, have inequitable outcomes. As noted by Kuenneke and Scutelnicu (2021), Kavanagh and Kowalski (2021) and McDonald and McCandless (2022, 2023), the budget process used to support these decisions and the financial instruments used to pay for them may exacerbate the inequities. This also relates to the reporting and accounting standards of public organisations, as decisions around what should be reported and monitored are typically a function of institutionalised values (Bracci et al , 2021).…”