IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eeg/euroeg/21.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fiscal illusion, fiscal consolidation and government expenditure composition in the OECD: a dynamic panel data approach

Author

Listed:
  • Ismael Sanz
  • Francisco J. Velázquez

Abstract

Following the present atmosphere of budgetary cuts in the OECD countries we analyze the effects of fiscal consolidation in the composition of government expenditures by functions. We modify a standard median voter demand model to incorporate a form of fiscal illusion based on the idea that voters-taxpayers may not be fully aware of the true composition of government expenditures because all types of expenditures are not equally visible. Then we exploit the panel structure of the dataset - 26 OECD countries over the period 1970-1997- by GMM estimation of a dynamic model taking into account unobserved country effects and possible endogeinity of the explanatory variables. Under the assumption that governments know the relative visibility of each type of expenditure, the pattern of the last three decades indicates that defense and the non-productive economic services are the less visible expenditures. On the other hand, education and housing seem to be the more visible expenditures.

Suggested Citation

  • Ismael Sanz & Francisco J. Velázquez, 2003. "Fiscal illusion, fiscal consolidation and government expenditure composition in the OECD: a dynamic panel data approach," European Economy Group Working Papers 21, European Economy Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:eeg:euroeg:21
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ucm.es/info/econeuro/documentos/documentos/dt212003.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Congleton, Roger D & Shughart, William F, II, 1990. "The Growth of Social Security: Electoral Push or Political Pull?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(1), pages 109-132, January.
    2. Mr. Paul Cashin & Ms. Catherine A Pattillo & Ms. Ratna Sahay & Mr. Paolo Mauro, 2001. "Macroeconomic Policies and Poverty Reduction: Stylized Facts and an Overview of Research," IMF Working Papers 2001/135, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Bergstrom, Theodore C & Goodman, Robert P, 1973. "Private Demands for Public Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(3), pages 280-296, June.
    4. Baumol, William J, 1972. "Macroeconomics of Unbalanced Growth: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 150-150, March.
    5. Congleton, Roger D & Bennett, Randall W, 1995. "On the Political Economy of State Highway Expenditures: Some Evidence of the Relative Performance of Alternative Public Choice Models," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 84(1-2), pages 1-24, July.
    6. Borcherding, Thomas E & Deacon, Robert T, 1972. "The Demand for the Services of Non-Federal Governments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 891-901, December.
    7. Alberto Alesina & Roberto Perotti, 1995. "Fiscal Expansions and Fiscal Adjustments in OECD Countries," NBER Working Papers 5214, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    9. Reza Baqir, 2002. "Social Sector Spending in a Panel of Countries," IMF Working Papers 2002/035, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Ahmed, Sultan & Greene, Kenneth V, 2000. "Is the Median Voter a Clear-Cut Winner? Comparing the Median Voter Theory and Competing Theories in Explaining Local Government Spending," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 105(3-4), pages 207-230, December.
    11. Davoodi, Hamid & Zou, Heng-fu, 1998. "Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Study," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 244-257, March.
    12. Ardagna, Silvia, 2001. "Fiscal Policy Composition, Public Debt, and Economic Activity," Scholarly Articles 2579823, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    13. Ardagna, Silvia, 2001. "Fiscal Policy Composition, Public Debt, and Economic Activity," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 109(3-4), pages 301-325, December.
    14. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    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. Paulo Reis Mourao, 2008. "Towards a Puviani’s Fiscal Illusion Index," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 187(4), pages 49-86, December.
    2. Momi Dahan & Michel Strawczynski, 2010. "Fiscal Rules and Composition Bias in OECD Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series 3088, CESifo.
    3. Sourafel Girma, 2005. "Absorptive Capacity and Productivity Spillovers from FDI: A Threshold Regression Analysis," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 67(3), pages 281-306, June.
    4. Jaime Turrion & Carmela Martin, 2003. "Eastern Enlargement of the European Union and Foreign Direct Investment Adjustments," European Economy Group Working Papers 24, European Economy Group.
    5. Mourão, Paulo, 2007. "Towards a Fiscal Illusion Index," MPRA Paper 9760, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 28 Jul 2008.

    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. Sanz, Ismael & Velazquez, Francisco J, 2003. "What do OECD countries cut first at a time of fiscal adjustments? A dynamic panel data approach," University of California at Santa Barbara, Economics Working Paper Series qt4j744960, Department of Economics, UC Santa Barbara.
    2. Benoît Le Maux, 2009. "Governmental behavior in representative democracy: a synthesis of the theoretical literature," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 447-465, December.
    3. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:8:y:2007:i:4:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Constantino Cronemberger Mendes & Maria da Conceicao Sampaio de Sousa, 2006. "Demand for locally provided public services within the median voter's framework: the case of the Brazilian municipalities," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 239-251.
    5. Constantino Cronemberger Mendes & Maria da Conceição Sampaio de Sousa, 2015. "Demand for Locally Provided Public Services within the Median Voter's Framework: the Case of the Brazilian Municipalities," Discussion Papers 0134, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - IPEA.
    6. Constantino Cronemberger Mendes & Maria da Conceição Sampaio de Sousa, 2004. "Demand for Locally provided Public Services Within the Median Voter`s Framework: The Case of the Brazilian Municipalities," Discussion Papers 1046, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - IPEA.
    7. Mr. Benedict J. Clements & Mr. Sanjeev Gupta & Mr. Emanuele Baldacci & Mr. Carlos Mulas-Granados, 2002. "Expenditure Composition, Fiscal Adjustment, and Growth in Low-Income Countries," IMF Working Papers 2002/077, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Carine Meyimdjui, 2017. "Food Price Shocks and Government Expenditure Composition: Evidence from African Countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-01457366, HAL.
    9. K. Peren Arin & Faik Koray, 2005. "Fiscal Policy And Economic Activity: Us Evidence," CAMA Working Papers 2005-09, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    10. Pinaki Chakraborty & Bharatee Bhusana Dash, 2017. "Fiscal Reforms, Fiscal Rule, and Development Spending: How Indian States Have Performed?," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 111-133, December.
    11. Andrea Filippetti & Agnese Sacchi, 2016. "Decentralization and economic growth reconsidered: The role of regional authority," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(8), pages 1793-1824, December.
    12. Nikolaos Antonakakis & Nikolaos Antonakakis & Alan Collins, 2014. "Does Fiscal Consolidation Really Get You Down? Evidence from Suicide Mortality," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp182, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    13. Thushyanthan Baskaran & Zohal Hessami, 2010. "Globalization and the Composition of Public Education Expenditures: A Dynamic Panel Analysis," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2010-03, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    14. Serhan Cevik, 2017. "Size matters: fragmentation and vertical fiscal imbalances in Moldova," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 44(2), pages 367-381, May.
    15. Tarkan Cavusoglu & Oguzhan Dincer, 2015. "Does decentralization reduce income inequality? Only in rich states," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 82(1), pages 285-306, July.
    16. Ismael Sanz & Francisco Javier Velázquez, 2002. "Determinants of the Composition of Government Expenditure by Functions," European Economy Group Working Papers 13, European Economy Group.
    17. Vitor Castro, 2016. "On the behaviour of the functional components ofgovernment expenditures during fiscal consolidations," NIPE Working Papers 11/2016, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    18. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Andrey Timofeev, 2008. "A fiscal perspective of state rescaling," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 2(1), pages 85-105.
    19. Castro, Vítor, 2017. "The impact of fiscal consolidations on the functional components of government expenditures," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 138-150.
    20. Thomas Stubbs & Bernhard Reinsberg & Alexander Kentikelenis & Lawrence King, 2020. "How to evaluate the effects of IMF conditionality," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 29-73, January.
    21. Jochen Hartwig, 2008. "Has Health Capital Formation Cured 'Baumol's Disease'? - Panel Granger Causality Evidence for OECD Countries," KOF Working papers 08-206, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:eeg:euroeg:21. 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: Ismael Sanz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/geucmes.html .

    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.