IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v61y1989i3p229-245.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Government size, productivity, and economic growth: The post-war experience

Author

Listed:
  • Edgar Peden
  • Michael Bradley

Abstract

A substantial portion of the slowdown in productivity and economic growth in the seventies and eighties cannot be ascribed to traditional factors. We have found one potential additional source: the dramatic growth in the scale of government. Employing a theoretical model of output growth, we derive an equation which controls for cyclical influences and which permits distinguishing the effects of government growth on the economic base from the effects on the economic growth rate. We find that increases in the scale of government lead to statistically significant reductions in both the economic base and the economic growth rate. In addition, we find that most of this government-induced retardation of economic activity arises from reductions in productivity rather that reductions in the employment of factors. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1989

Suggested Citation

  • Edgar Peden & Michael Bradley, 1989. "Government size, productivity, and economic growth: The post-war experience," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 229-245, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:61:y:1989:i:3:p:229-245
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00123886
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF00123886
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF00123886?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kotlikoff, Laurence J, 1984. "Taxation and Savings: A Neoclassical Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 22(4), pages 1576-1629, December.
    2. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1970. "Capacity, Overtime, and Empirical Production Functions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(2), pages 23-27, May.
    3. Michael Marlow, 1986. "Private sector shrinkage and the growth of industrialized economies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 143-154, January.
    4. Barro, Robert J, 1981. "Output Effects of Government Purchases," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(6), pages 1086-1121, December.
    5. Barro, Robert J, 1979. "On the Determination of the Public Debt," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 940-971, October.
    6. Philip Grossman, 1988. "Government and economic growth: A non-linear relationship," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 193-200, February.
    7. Ram, Rati, 1986. "Government Size and Economic Growth: A New Framework and Some Evidencefrom Cross-Section and Time-Series Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(1), pages 191-203, March.
    8. Campbell, John Y & Mankiw, N Gregory, 1987. "Permanent and Transitory Components in Macroeconomic Fluctuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(2), pages 111-117, May.
    9. Michael Marlow, 1988. "Fiscal decentralization and government size," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 259-269, March.
    10. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1973. "Some International Evidence on Output-Inflation Tradeoffs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(3), pages 326-334, June.
    11. Kormendi, Roger C, 1983. "Government Debt, Government Spending, and Private Sector Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 994-1010, December.
    12. Baily, Martin Neil, 1984. "Will Productivity Growth Recover? Has It Done So Already?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(2), pages 231-235, May.
    13. Lucas, Robert E, Jr & Rapping, Leonard A, 1969. "Real Wages, Employment, and Inflation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(5), pages 721-754, Sept./Oct.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Ivan D. Trofimov, 2017. "Capital Productivity In Industrialised Economies: Evidence From Error-Correction Model And Lagrange Multiplier Tests," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 62(215), pages 53-80, October –.
    2. Facchini, François & Melki, Mickaël, 2013. "Efficient government size: France in the 20th century," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-14.
    3. repec:got:cegedp:83 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. F. Forte, 1997. "The measurement of 'fiscal burden' on GDP instead than on national net value added produced: a chapter in fiscal illusion," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 50(202), pages 337-375.
    5. Schneider, Friedrich G., 2009. "Is a Federal European Constitution for an enlarged European Union necessary? Some preliminary suggestions using public choice analysis," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 83, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    6. Isabel Argimon & Jose Gonzalez-Paramo & Jose Roldan, 1997. "Evidence of public spending crowding-out from a panel of OECD countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(8), pages 1001-1010.
    7. Patrick Minford & David Meenagh & Jiang Wang, 2006. "Testing a Simple Structural Model of Endogenous Growth," CDMA Conference Paper Series 0606, Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis.
    8. Robert Pater & Tomasz Skica, 2014. "The productivity of public and private sector in Poland," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 10(2), pages 120-137, July.
    9. Coll Sebastian, 2014. "Is There Too Much Government in Developed Countries? A Time-Series Analysis of 24 OECD-Economies," Journal of Heterodox Economics, Sciendo, vol. 1(1), pages 1-30, June.
    10. Yamamura, Eiji, 2011. "Decomposition of the effect of government size on growth," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 112(3), pages 230-232, September.
    11. Federica Calidoni, 2004. "Aggregate and Disaggregate Analysis of the Effects of Government Expenditure on Growth," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 160, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    12. Minford, Patrick & Meenagh, David & Wang, Jiang, 2007. "Growth and relative living standards - testing Barriers to Riches on post-war panel data," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2007/12, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    13. François Facchini & Mickaël Melki, 2011. "Optimal Government Size and Economic Growth in France (1871-2008): An explanation by the State and Market Failures," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 11077, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    14. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Violeta Vulovic & Yongzheng Liu, 2011. "Direct versus Indirect Taxation: Trends, Theory, and Economic Significance," Chapters, in: Emilio Albi & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), The Elgar Guide to Tax Systems, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Ezebuilo Romanus Ukwueze, 2015. "Determinants of the Size of Public Expenditure in Nigeria," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(4), pages 21582440156, December.
    16. Garey Durden & Barry Elledge, 1993. "The Effect Of Government Size On Economic Growth: Evidence From Gross State Product Data," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 23(2), pages 183-190, Fall.
    17. Schneider Friedrich, 1992. "The Federal And Fiscal Structures Of Representative And Direct Democracies As Models For A European Federal Union: Some Ideas Using The Public-Choice Approach," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 3(4), pages 1-36, December.
    18. Magazzino, Cosimo & Forte, Francesco, 2010. "Optimal size of government and economic growth in EU-27," MPRA Paper 26669, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Facchini, François & Melki, Mickaël, 2013. "Efficient government size: France in the 20th century," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-14.
    20. Konstantinos Angelopoulos & Apostolis Philippopoulos, 2007. "The growth effects of fiscal policy in Greece 1960–2000," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 157-175, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Isabel Argimon & Jose Gonzalez-Paramo & Jose Roldan, 1997. "Evidence of public spending crowding-out from a panel of OECD countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(8), pages 1001-1010.
    2. Pula Lekë & Elshani Alban, 2018. "Role of Public Expenditure in Economic Growth: Econometric Evidence from Kosovo 2002–2015," Baltic Journal of Real Estate Economics and Construction Management, Sciendo, vol. 6(1), pages 74-87, June.
    3. Facchini, François & Melki, Mickaël, 2013. "Efficient government size: France in the 20th century," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-14.
    4. Facchini, François & Melki, Mickaël, 2013. "Efficient government size: France in the 20th century," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-14.
    5. Pieroni, Luca & Lorusso, Marco, 2013. "The Role of Fiscal Policy Components in Private Consumption: a Re-examination of the Effects of Military and Civilian Spending," MPRA Paper 47878, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Casey B. Mulligan, 1999. "Substitution over Time: Another Look at Life-Cycle Labor Supply," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1998, volume 13, pages 75-152, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum, 1988. "Is Theory Really Ahead of Measurement? Current Real Business Cycle Theories and Aggregate Labor Market Fluctuations," NBER Working Papers 2700, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. J. Stephen Ferris, 2010. "Fiscal Policy from a Public Choice Perspective," Carleton Economic Papers 10-10, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    9. Brittle, Shane, 2009. "Ricardian Equivalence and the Efficacy of Fiscal Policy in Australia," Economics Working Papers wp09-10, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    10. F. Forte, 1997. "The measurement of 'fiscal burden' on GDP instead than on national net value added produced: a chapter in fiscal illusion," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 50(202), pages 337-375.
    11. Elmendorf, Douglas W. & Gregory Mankiw, N., 1999. "Government debt," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 25, pages 1615-1669, Elsevier.
    12. N. Gregory Mankiw & Ricardo Reis, 2002. "Sticky Information versus Sticky Prices: A Proposal to Replace the New Keynesian Phillips Curve," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1295-1328.
    13. Hafedh Bouakez & Nooman Rebei, 2007. "Why does private consumption rise after a government spending shock?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 40(3), pages 954-979, August.
    14. Aurélien Goutsmedt, 2021. "From the Stagflation to the Great Inflation: Explaining the US economy of the 1970s," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 131(3), pages 557-582.
    15. INCEU Adrian Mihai & ZAI Paul, 2012. "Budget Revenues In Eu-27," Revista Economica, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(4), pages 342-351.
    16. Olivier Blanchard, 2000. "What Do We Know about Macroeconomics that Fisher and Wicksell Did Not?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1375-1409.
    17. GAVRILETEA Marius Dan & MOGA Aura Carmen, 2012. "Economic Crisis - Understanding The Causes To Analyse Possible Solutions," Revista Economica, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(4), pages 283-289.
    18. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Mehmet Ugur & Siew Ling Yew, 2017. "Does Government Size Affect Per-Capita Income Growth? A Hierarchical Meta-Regression Analysis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(300), pages 142-171, March.
    19. AVRAM Veronel & TOGOE Greti Daniela, 2012. "Considerations Regarding The Patrimonial Inventory In The Spirit Of European Acconting Regulations," Revista Economica, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(4), pages 3-7.
    20. BATRANCEA Ioan & BATRANCEA Maria & MOSCVICIOV Andrei, 2012. "Financial Performance Of Banks Analysis," Revista Economica, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(4), pages 26-31.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:kap:pubcho:v:61:y:1989:i:3:p:229-245. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.