Self-organization in Slovenian public spending.

Area of Science:

• Economics
• Network Science
• Public Administration

Background:

• Public contracts involve significant allocation of public funds to private entities.
• Transparency and equitable distribution in public spending are critical concerns in democratic societies.
• Understanding the regularities in public money allocation is essential for effective governance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the patterns and regularities governing the distribution of public money to private companies in Slovenia.
• To determine if public spending follows predictable statistical distributions.
• To identify factors influencing the allocation of state budgets to the private sector.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of a comprehensive dataset of public money transfers to the private sector in Slovenia from January 2003 to May 2020.
• Statistical modeling, including power-law and lognormal fits, to analyze the cumulative distribution of funds.
• Examination of temporal dynamics, including the 'first-mover advantage' and funding linearity over time.

Main Results:

• The distribution of public money received per company in Slovenia can be accurately modeled by power-law or lognormal functions.
• Evidence suggests a 'first-mover advantage' exists, where early recipients may have an ongoing benefit.
• The rate at which companies receive new funding shows a roughly linear trend over time.

Conclusions:

• Slovenian public spending, despite human involvement, exhibits emergent self-organizing principles.
• The findings challenge assumptions of purely arbitrary or biased allocation, suggesting underlying statistical regularities.
• This research provides insights into the complex dynamics of public-private financial flows and governance.