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The effects of public transfers on productivity

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Author Info
F. Calidoni ()

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Abstract

This paper attempts to establish empirically the effects of transfers to household on labour productivity growth. In particular, I investigate the effects of health and social security expenditure on the rate of growth of GDP per labour units in 19 sectors and 13 OECD countries in the period 1976-2000. The main result is that transfers such as health expenditure and social security spending have positive and significant effects on labour productivity in the sectors that require low skilled workers, such as manufacturing of non-durable goods, energy supply, construction and services. This research shows that these results could be due to a "risk insuring" mechanism: employees with low wages (on average low skilled and high labour intensive jobs are less paid than high tech ones) find in higher government spending a guarantee of safety and wellbeing, otherwise difficult to achieve with their own resources. Moreover the increased security allows them to divert resources towards higher saving and investment in education. These results are consistent with the assumption that fiscal variables affect growth by means of total factor productivity and robust to the test of a possible spurious correlation between public transfers and growth, due to openness to trade.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy) in its series Economics Department Working Papers with number 2005-EP01.

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Length: 21 pages
Date of creation: 2005
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Handle: RePEc:par:dipeco:2005-ep01

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Related research
Keywords: public transfers productivity growth

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies
R12 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  2. Kneller, Richard & Bleaney, Michael F. & Gemmell, Norman, 1999. "Fiscal policy and growth: evidence from OECD countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 171-190, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Michael B. Devereux & Allen C. Head & Beverly J. Lapham, 1993. "Monopolistic Competition, Increasing Returns, and the Effects of Government Spending," Working Papers 894, Queen's University, Department of Economics.
    Other versions:
  4. Easterly, William & Rebelo, Sergio, 1993. "Fiscal policy and economic growth: An empirical investigation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 417-458, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Fölster, Stefan & Henrekson, Magnus, 1998. "Growth Effects of Government Expenditure and Taxation in Rich Countries," Working Paper Series 503, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 20 Jun 2000.
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  6. Wildasin, David E, 1995. " Factor Mobility, Risk and Redistribution in the Welfare State," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 97(4), pages 527-46, December.
  7. Rocio Ribero, 1999. "Earnings Effects of Household Investment in Health in Colombia," Working Papers 810, Economic Growth Center, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  8. Eric M. Engen & Jonathan Skinner, 1992. "Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 4223, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Folster, Stefan & Henrekson, Magnus, 1999. "Growth and the public sector: a critique of the critics," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 337-358, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Mendoza, Enrique G. & Milesi-Ferretti, Gian Maria & Asea, Patrick, 1997. "On the ineffectiveness of tax policy in altering long-run growth: Harberger's superneutrality conjecture," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 99-126, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Barro, Robert J, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 106(2), pages 407-43, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Why Do More Open Economies Have Bigger Governments?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 997-1032, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Hansson, Par & Henrekson, Magnus, 1994. " A New Framework for Testing the Effect of Government Spending on Growth and Productivity," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 81(3-4), pages 381-401, December.
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. D. Tondani, 2006. "Estimating the effects of personal income tax on labour supply in Italy," Economics Department Working Papers 2006-EP03, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy). [Downloadable!]
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