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Explaining the Growth of Government Spending in Ghana

Author

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  • Samuel Kwabena Obeng Author-Name: Daniel Sakyi

    (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana)

Abstract

Government spending is a reflection of government policy choices. However, the implications of government spending growth necessitate an understanding of the drivers of the growth of government spending. The present paper modifies the median voter model to explain the growth of government spending by introducing foreign aid, public debt, and democracy. The paper argues that these variables are important drivers of government spending for developing countries, hence a model explaining the growth of government spending of these group of countries that ignores the potential impact of foreign aid, public debt and democracy does not capture fully what determines the growth of government spending. Such a model is too simplistic and less relevant for policy purposes. The paper therefore makes use of annual time series data to determine the long-and short-run impact of per capita income, tax share, minimum wage, population growth, foreign aid, public debt and democracy on the growth of government spending in Ghana over the period 1980-2012. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDT) bounds test for cointegration and the error correction model (ECM) procedures were used for the estimation. Additionally, the paper provides results of generalized forecast error variance decomposition in order to determine the effect of innovations in both the dependent and independent variables on the dependent variable. The findings reveal that per capita income, tax share, population growth, minimum wage, foreign aid, public debt, and democracy are key determinants of the growth of government spending in the long-run. With the exception of minimum wage, these variables are also key determinants of the growth of government spending in the short-run. Variance decomposition results suggest innovations in per capita income and population growth generally account for the largest variations in government spending over the horizon considered. Also, innovations in foreign aid, public debt, and democracy are responsible for significant variations in government spending. The findings and policy recommendations of the paper provide vital information for policy implementation in Ghana.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Kwabena Obeng Author-Name: Daniel Sakyi, 2017. "Explaining the Growth of Government Spending in Ghana," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 51(1), pages 103-128, January-M.
    • Handle: RePEc:jda:journl:vol.51:year:2017:issue1:pp:103-128
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kjell Hausken & Christian W. Martin & Thomas Plümper, 2004. "Government Spending and Taxation in Democracies and Autocracies," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 239-259, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Abel Gwaindepi & Johan Fourie, 2020. "Public Sector Growth in the British Cape Colony: Evidence From New Data on Expenditure and Foreign Debt, 1830‐1910," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 88(3), pages 341-367, September.
    2. Samuel K. Obeng, 2022. "On the determinants and interrelationship of components of government spending," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 2414-2435, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Government spending; Foreign aid; Public debt; Democracy; ARDT; cointegration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes
    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • H60 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - General

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