IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v31y2003i3p302-324.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Survey of the International Empirical Evidence on the Tax-Spend Debate

Author

Listed:
  • James E. Payne

Abstract

The concern over budget deficits in the mid-1980s generated a strand of literature known as the tax-spend debate, sometimes labeled the revenue-expenditure nexus. This literature has focused on the intertemporal relationship between revenues and expenditures in the generation of budget deficits. In light of the numerous empirical time-series studies on the subject, the intent of this survey article is to provide an overview of the work to date as well as provide suggestions for future research in this area.

Suggested Citation

  • James E. Payne, 2003. "A Survey of the International Empirical Evidence on the Tax-Spend Debate," Public Finance Review, , vol. 31(3), pages 302-324, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:31:y:2003:i:3:p:302-324
    DOI: 10.1177/1091142103031003005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1091142103031003005
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1091142103031003005?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xiaoming Li, 2001. "Government revenue, government expenditure, and temporal causality: evidence from China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 485-497.
    2. Kevin L. Ross & James E. Payne, 1998. "A Reexamination of Budgetary Disequilibria," Public Finance Review, , vol. 26(1), pages 67-79, January.
    3. Garcia, Sophie & Henin, Pierre-Yves, 1999. "Balancing budget through tax increases or expenditure cuts: is it neutral?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 591-612, December.
    4. Eichengreen, Barry & Bayoumi, Tamim, 1994. "The political economy of fiscal restrictions: Implications for Europe from the United States," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 783-791, April.
    5. Lee, Dwight R & Vedder, Richard K, 1992. "Friedman Tax Cuts vs. Buchanan Deficit Reduction as the Best Way of Constraining Government," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 30(4), pages 722-732, October.
    6. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    7. Benjamin Cheng, 1999. "Causality between taxes and expenditures: Evidence from Latin American countries," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 23(2), pages 184-192, June.
    8. Constantinos Katrakilidis, 1997. "Spending and revenues in Greece: new evidence from error correction modelling," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(6), pages 387-391.
    9. Hamilton, James D & Flavin, Marjorie A, 1986. "On the Limitations of Government Borrowing: A Framework for EmpiricalTesting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 808-819, September.
    10. Hakkio, Craig S & Rush, Mark, 1991. "Is the Budget Deficit "Too Large?"," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 29(3), pages 429-445, July.
    11. Hylleberg, S. & Engle, R. F. & Granger, C. W. J. & Yoo, B. S., 1990. "Seasonal integration and cointegration," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1-2), pages 215-238.
    12. Haug, Alfred A, 1991. "Cointegration and Government Borrowing Constraints: Evidence for the United States," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 9(1), pages 97-101, January.
    13. Caines, P. E. & Keng, C. W. & Sethi, S. P., 1981. "Causality analysis and multivariate Autoregressive modelling with an application to supermarket sales analysis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 267-298, November.
    14. Alberto Alesina & Tamim Bayoumi, 1996. "The Costs and Benefits of Fiscal Rules: Evidence from U.S. States," NBER Working Papers 5614, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Eric Jondeau, 1992. "La soutenabilité de la politique budgétaire," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 104(3), pages 1-17.
    16. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Newey, Whitney & Rosen, Harvey S, 1989. "The Revenues-Expenditures Nexus: Evidence from Local Government Data," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(2), pages 415-429, May.
    17. Smith, Gregor W & Zin, Stanley E, 1991. "Persistent Deficits and the Market Value of Government Debt," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(1), pages 31-44, Jan.-Marc.
    18. Guilkey, David K & Salemi, Michael K, 1982. "Small Sample Properties of Three Tests for Granger-Causal Ordering in a Bivariate Stochastic System," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(4), pages 668-680, November.
    19. 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.
    20. Ali F. Darrat, 2002. "Budget Balance Through Spending Cuts Or Tax Adjustments?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 20(3), pages 221-233, July.
    21. James Payne, 1997. "The tax-spend debate: the case of Canada," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(6), pages 381-386.
    22. Oluwole Owoye, 1995. "The causal relationship between taxes and expenditures in the G7 countries: cointegration and error-correction models," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 19-22.
    23. Johansen, Soren & Juselius, Katarina, 1990. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Inference on Cointegration--With Applications to the Demand for Money," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 52(2), pages 169-210, May.
    24. Haug, Alfred A, 1995. "Has Federal Budget Deficit Policy Changed in Recent Years?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(1), pages 104-118, January.
    25. Joulfaian, David & Mookerjee, Rajen, 1990. "The Intertemporal Relationship between State and Local Government Revenues and Expenditures: Evidence from OECD Countries," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 45(1), pages 109-117.
    26. Hondroyiannis, George & Papapetrou, Evangelia, 1996. "An Examination of the Causal Relationship between Government Spending and Revenue: A Cointegration Analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 89(3-4), pages 363-374, December.
    27. Lutkepohl, Helmut, 1982. "Non-causality due to omitted variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 367-378, August.
    28. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Newey, Whitney & Rosen, Harvey S, 1988. "Estimating Vector Autoregressions with Panel Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(6), pages 1371-1395, November.
    29. Wilcox, David W, 1989. "The Sustainability of Government Deficits: Implications of the Present-Value Borrowing Constraint," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 21(3), pages 291-306, August.
    30. Michael Marlow & Neela Manage, 1988. "Expenditures and receipts in state and local government finances: Reply," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 287-290, December.
    31. Poterba, James M, 1994. "State Responses to Fiscal Crises: The Effects of Budgetary Institutions and Politics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(4), pages 799-821, August.
    32. Bohn, Henning & Inman, Robert P., 1996. "Balanced-budget rules and public deficits: evidence from the U.S. states," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 13-76, December.
    33. de Haan, Jakob & Siermann, Clemens L J, 1993. "The Intertemporal Government Budget Constraint: An Application for the Netherlands," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 48(2), pages 243-249.
    34. Huang, Chi & Tang, D. P., 1992. "Government revenue, expenditure, and national income: A granger causal analysis of the case of Taiwan," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 135-148.
    35. de Haan, J. & Sierman, C.L.J., 1993. "The Intertemporal Government Budget Constraint: A Review and Application for the Netherlands," Papers 556, Groningen State, Institute of Economic Research-.
    36. Baffes, John & Shah, Anwar, 1994. "Causality and comovement between taxes and expenditures: Historical evidence from Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 311-331, August.
    37. Tsangyao Chang & Wen Rong Liu & Steven Caudill, 2002. "Tax-and-spend, spend-and-tax, or fiscal synchronization: new evidence for ten countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(12), pages 1553-1561.
    38. Clive, W.J. & Lin, Jin-Lung, 1995. "Causality in the Long Run," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 530-536, June.
    39. Abdur Chowdhury, 1988. "Expenditures and receipts in state and local government finances: Comment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 277-285, December.
    40. Abdulnasser Hatemi-J & Ghazi Shukur, 1999. "The causal nexus of government spending and revenue in Finland: a bootstrap approach," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(10), pages 641-644.
    41. Payne, James E, 1998. "The Tax-Spend Debate: Time Series Evidence from State Budgets," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 95(3-4), pages 307-320, June.
    42. Sims, Christopher A, 1980. "Macroeconomics and Reality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 1-48, January.
    43. Granger, C W J, 1969. "Investigating Causal Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-Spectral Methods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 37(3), pages 424-438, July.
    44. Henning Bohn & Robert P. Inman, "undated". "Balanced Budget Rules and Public Deficits: Evidence from the U.S. States (Reprint 060)," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 10-96, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    45. Engle, Robert F. & Yoo, Byung Sam, 1987. "Forecasting and testing in co-integrated systems," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 143-159, May.
    46. Meltzer, Allan H & Richard, Scott F, 1981. "A Rational Theory of the Size of Government," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 914-927, October.
    47. Provopoulos, George & Zambaras, Athanassios, 1991. "Testing for Causality between Government Spending and Taxation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 68(1-3), pages 277-282, January.
    48. Matz Dahlberg & Eva Johansson, 1998. "The revenues-expenditures nexus: panel data evidence from Swedish municipalities," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(10), pages 1379-1386.
    49. Koren, Stephan & Stiassny, Alfred, 1998. "Tax and Spend, or Spend and Tax? An International Study," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 163-191, April.
    50. Ram, Rati, 1988. "A Multicountry Perspective on Causality between Government Revenue and Government Expenditure," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 43(2), pages 261-270.
    51. Richard Wagner, 1976. "Revenue structure, fiscal illusion, and budgetary choice," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 45-61, March.
    52. Christos Kollias & Stelios Makrydakis, 2000. "Tax and spend or spend and tax? Empirical evidence from Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 533-546.
    53. Muhammad Islam, 2001. "Structural break, unit root, and the causality between government expenditures and revenues," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(8), pages 565-567.
    54. Bernanke, Ben S., 1986. "Alternative explanations of the money-income correlation," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 49-99, January.
    55. Trehan, Bharat & Walsh, Carl E., 1988. "Common trends, the government's budget constraint, and revenue smoothing," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 425-444.
    56. Hendry, David F. & Richard, Jean-Francois, 1982. "On the formulation of empirical models in dynamic econometrics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 3-33, October.
    57. Johansen, Soren, 1988. "Statistical analysis of cointegration vectors," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 231-254.
    58. Sims, Christopher A, 1972. "Money, Income, and Causality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 540-552, September.
    59. Tanner, Evan & Liu, Peter, 1994. "Is the Budget Deficit "Too Large"?: Some Further Evidence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(3), pages 511-518, July.
    60. Michael Marlow & Neela Manage, 1987. "Expenditures and receipts: Testing for causality in state and local government finances," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 243-255, January.
    61. David Joulfaian & Rajen Mookeriee, 1990. "The Government Revenue-Expenditure Nexus: Evidence from a State," Public Finance Review, , vol. 18(1), pages 92-103, January.
    62. James Payne, 1997. "International evidence on the sustainability of budget deficits," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(12), pages 775-779.
    63. Vamvoukas, George, 1997. "Budget Expenditures and Revenues: An Application of Error-Correction Modelling," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 52(1), pages 125-138.
    64. Roberts, Paul Craig, 1978. "Idealism in public choice theory," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 603-615, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Trachanas, Emmanouil & Katrakilidis, Constantinos, 2013. "Fiscal deficits under financial pressure and insolvency: Evidence for Italy, Greece and Spain," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 730-749.
    2. A. Phiri, 2019. "Asymmetries in the revenue–expenditure nexus: new evidence from South Africa," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1515-1547, May.
    3. Athanasios Athanasenas & Constantinos Katrakilidis & Emmanouil Trachanas, 2014. "Government spending and revenues in the Greek economy: evidence from nonlinear cointegration," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(2), pages 365-376, May.
    4. Yaya Keho, 2010. "Spending Cuts or Tax Adjustments: How Can UEMOA Countries Control Their Budget Deficits?," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 9(3), pages 233-252, December.
    5. Paleologou, Suzanna-Maria, 2013. "Asymmetries in the revenue–expenditure nexus: A tale of three countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 52-60.
    6. Francisco de Castro & José M. González-Páramo & Pablo Hernández de Cos, 2001. "Evaluating the dynamics of fiscal policy in Spain: patterns of interdependence and consistency of public expenditure and revenues," Working Papers 0103, Banco de España.
    7. James Payne, 1997. "The tax-spend debate: the case of Canada," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(6), pages 381-386.
    8. Paul Alagidede & George Tweneboah, 2015. "On the Sustainability and Synchronization of Fiscal Policy in Latin America," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 52(2), pages 213-240, November.
    9. Teresa Famulska & Jan Kaczmarzyk & Malgorzata Grzaba, 2020. "The Relationship Between Tax Revenue and Public Social Expenditure in the EU Member States," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 1136-1156.
    10. Westerlund, Joakim & Mahdavi, Saeid & Firoozi, Fathali, 2011. "The tax-spending nexus: Evidence from a panel of US state-local governments," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 885-890, May.
    11. Pierre-Yves Hénin, 1997. "Soutenabilité des déficits et ajustements budgétaires," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 48(3), pages 371-395.
    12. Michele Salvi & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2023. "Tax more or spend less? Historical evidence from Switzerland’s federal budget plans," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(3), pages 678-705, June.
    13. George A. Vamvoukas, 2011. "Panel Data Modeling and the Tax-Spend Controversy in the Euro Zone," Post-Print hal-00716629, HAL.
    14. Narayan, Paresh Kumar, 2005. "The government revenue and government expenditure nexus: empirical evidence from nine Asian countries," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 1203-1216, January.
    15. Oyeyinka OMOSHORO-JONES, 2020. "Investigating The Government Revenue–Expenditure Nexus: Empirical Evidence For The Free State Province In A Multivariate Model," Theoretical and Practical Research in the Economic Fields, ASERS Publishing, vol. 11(2), pages 138-156.
    16. António Afonso, 2000. "Fiscal policy sustainability: some unpleasant European evidence," Working Papers Department of Economics 2000/12, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    17. António Afonso, 2005. "Fiscal Sustainability: The Unpleasant European Case," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 61(1), pages 19-44, March.
    18. Juan Carlos Cuestas & Luis A. Gil-Alana & Laura Sauci, 2020. "Public finances in the EU-27: Are they sustainable?," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 181-204, February.
    19. Luis Gil-Alana, 2009. "Government Expenditures and Revenues: Evidence of Fractional Cointegration in an Asymmetric Modeling," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 15(2), pages 143-155, May.
    20. Nadeem Iqbal & Wasim Shahid Malik, 2010. "Budget Balance: Through Revenue or Spending Adjustment: Evidence from Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 49(4), pages 611-630.

    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:sae:pubfin:v:31:y:2003:i:3:p:302-324. 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: SAGE Publications (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.