IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/jespps/v35y2008i4p333-351.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inequality and size of government: evidence from Brazilian states

Author

Listed:
  • Enlinson Mattos
  • Fabiana Rocha

Abstract

Purpose - This paper seeks to investigate the role of income‐inequality on the size of local government. Design/methodology/approach - First, the paper extends the model proposed by Meltzer and Richard, allowing for spatial interaction in the redistributive in‐kind transfers from the local governments. Second, it estimates the determinants of the size in local government taking into consideration spatial dependence in the variables. Findings - This model points that the poorer the median voter is, the higher should be the level of local public expenditures, but the spillover effect (spatial effect) in spending is undetermined. Second, using data on Brazilian states public finance, the results suggest a negative relation between expenditures (and tax revenues) and the median voter income, in favor to the model. While both public spending and tax rates exhibit negative spatial correlation (substitute goods), behavioral significance can be attached to the spatial process in public spending but not to the spatial process in the local tax rate. Originality/value - The paper provides a small extension of the Meltzer and Richard model allowing for spatial interaction and contributes to the empirical debate about inequality and the size of the government presenting the results for Brazil.

Suggested Citation

  • Enlinson Mattos & Fabiana Rocha, 2008. "Inequality and size of government: evidence from Brazilian states," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(4), pages 333-351, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:jespps:v:35:y:2008:i:4:p:333-351
    DOI: 10.1108/01443580810895626
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443580810895626/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443580810895626/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/01443580810895626?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Wenxi & Wang, Bo & Wang, Jian & Wu, Qun & Wei, Yehua Dennis, 2022. "How does industrial agglomeration affect urban land use efficiency? A spatial analysis of Chinese cities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    2. Christian Bredemeier, 2014. "Imperfect information and the Meltzer-Richard hypothesis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 561-576, June.
    3. Benoît LE MAUX & Kristýna DOSTÁLOVÁ & Fabio PADOVANO, 2017. "Ideology and Public Policies: A Quasi-Experimental Test of the Hypothesis that Left-Wing Governments Spend More," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2017-01-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    4. Laudo M. Ogura, 2010. "Effects of Urban Growth Controls on Intercity Commuting," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(10), pages 2173-2193, September.
    5. Benoît Le Maux & Kristýna Dostálová & Fabio Padovano, 2020. "Ideology or voters? A quasi-experimental test of why left-wing governments spend more," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 17-48, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:jespps:v:35:y:2008:i:4:p:333-351. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.