This work analyzes the evolution of real public expenditures of local and regional administrations (LRA), in Portugal, in the period after the Second World War. It also aims to estimate the elasticities associated to determinants, which explain the found growth. As most relevant results, it is focused that real public expenditures of LRA did not increase in a constant way – the most significant period of growth was between 1974 and 1990. A long-term relation was found among real public expenditures of LRA (as a proportion of real Gross National Product), the Number of Employees in Public Administration, the Number of Unemployed and Public Revenues. These results are consistent with modern versions of Wagner’s Laws, with the role of lobbying groups and with the bureaucracy being a source of discouragement referring to the decentralized public expenditures.
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Find related papers by JEL classification: H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General - - - Estimation