IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/ijsepp/ijse-12-2016-0365.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Government expenditure and economic growth in the European Union countries

Author

Listed:
  • Gitana Dudzevičiūtė
  • Agnė Šimelytė
  • Aušra Liučvaitienė

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide more reliable estimates of the relationship between government spending and economic growth in the European Union (EU) during the period of 1995-2015. Design/methodology/approach - The methodology consisted of several different stages. In the first stage for an assessment of dynamics of government spending and economic growth indicators over two decades, descriptive statistics analysis was employed. Correlation analysis helped to identify the relationships between government expenditures (GEs) and economic growth. In the third stage, for modeling the relationship and the estimation of causality between GE and economic growth, Granger causality testing was applied. Findings - The research indicated that eight EU countries have a significant relationship between government spending and economic growth. Research limitations/implications - This study has been bounded by general GE and economic growth only. The breakdowns of general GE on the basis of the activities they support have not been considered in this paper, which is the main limitation of the research. Despite the limitation, it might be maintained that the research highlights key relationships in the EU countries. Originality/value - These insights might be useful for policy makers. In countries with unidirectional causality running from GE to economic growth, the government can employ expenditure as a factor for growth. The governments should ensure that resources are properly managed and efficiently allocated to accelerate economic growth in the countries with unidirectional causality from GDP to GE.

Suggested Citation

  • Gitana Dudzevičiūtė & Agnė Šimelytė & Aušra Liučvaitienė, 2018. "Government expenditure and economic growth in the European Union countries," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 45(2), pages 372-386, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:ijsepp:ijse-12-2016-0365
    DOI: 10.1108/IJSE-12-2016-0365
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSE-12-2016-0365/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSE-12-2016-0365/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/IJSE-12-2016-0365?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. Muritala, Taiwo & Taiwo, Abayomi, 2011. "Government expenditure and economic development: empirical evidence from Nigeria," MPRA Paper 37293, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Lamartina Serena & Zaghini Andrea, 2011. "Increasing Public Expenditure: Wagner’s Law in OECD Countries," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 149-164, May.
    3. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    4. d’Agostino, Giorgio & Dunne, J. Paul & Pieroni, Luca, 2016. "Government Spending, Corruption and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 190-205.
    5. Chor Foon Tang, 2009. "An Examination of the Government Spending and Economic Growth Nexus for Malaysia Using the Leveraged Bootstrap Simulation Approach," Global Economic Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(2), pages 215-227.
    6. Devarajan, Shantayanan & Swaroop, Vinaya & Heng-fu, Zou, 1996. "The composition of public expenditure and economic growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 313-344, April.
    7. Larch, Mario & Lechthaler, Wolfgang, 2013. "Buy National or Buy International? The optimal design of government spending in an open economy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 87-108.
    8. Awaworyi Churchill, S. & Yew, S.L., 2017. "Are government transfers harmful to economic growth? A meta-analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 270-287.
    9. Andreas Irmen & Johanna Kuehnel, 2009. "Productive Government Expenditure And Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 692-733, September.
    10. James L. Butkiewicz & Halit Yanikkaya, 2011. "Institutions and the impact of government spending on growth," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 14, pages 319-341, November.
    11. Spilioti, Stella & Vamvoukas, George, 2015. "The impact of government debt on economic growth: An empirical investigation of the Greek market," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 34-40.
    12. Daniel Murphy, 2015. "How Can Government Spending Stimulate Consumption?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(3), pages 551-574, July.
    13. Saten Kumar & Don J. Webber & Scott Fargher, 2012. "Wagner's Law revisited: cointegration and causality tests for New Zealand," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(5), pages 607-616, February.
    14. Asimakopoulos, Stylianos & Karavias, Yiannis, 2016. "The impact of government size on economic growth: A threshold analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 65-68.
    15. Granger, C. W. J., 1980. "Testing for causality : A personal viewpoint," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 329-352, May.
    16. 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.
    17. Wu, Shih-Ying & Tang, Jenn-Hong & Lin, Eric S., 2010. "The impact of government expenditure on economic growth: How sensitive to the level of development?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 804-817, November.
    18. Bharat Kolluri & Mahmoud Wahab, 2007. "Asymmetries in the conditional relation of government expenditure and economic growth," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(18), pages 2303-2322.
    19. Nicholas Odhiambo, 2015. "Government Expenditure and Economic Growth in South Africa: an Empirical Investigation," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 43(3), pages 393-406, September.
    20. Niloy Bose & M. Emranul Haque & Denise R. Osborn, 2007. "Public Expenditure And Economic Growth: A Disaggregated Analysis For Developing Countries," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 75(5), pages 533-556, September.
    21. Jiranyakul, Komain, 2007. "The Relation between Government Expenditures and Economic Growth in Thailand," MPRA Paper 46070, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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. Jiranyakul, Komain, 2020. "Government Expenditures and Economic Growth: A Cointegration Analysis for Thailand under the Floating Exchange Rate Regime," MPRA Paper 109054, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Gilbert Nartea & Jacqueline Hernandez, 2020. "Government Size, the Composition of Public Spending and Economic Growth in Netherland," Journal of Accounting, Business and Finance Research, Scientific Publishing Institute, vol. 9(2), pages 82-89.

    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. Philip Arestis & Hüseyin Şen & Ayşe Kaya, 2021. "On the linkage between government expenditure and output: empirics of the Keynesian view versus Wagner’s law," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 265-303, May.
    2. Jiranyakul, Komain, 2020. "Government Expenditures and Economic Growth: A Cointegration Analysis for Thailand under the Floating Exchange Rate Regime," MPRA Paper 100284, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Jiranyakul, Komain, 2020. "Government Expenditures and Economic Growth: A Cointegration Analysis for Thailand under the Floating Exchange Rate Regime," MPRA Paper 109054, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Nicholas Odhiambo, 2015. "Government Expenditure and Economic Growth in South Africa: an Empirical Investigation," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 43(3), pages 393-406, September.
    5. Jiranyakul, Komain, 2020. "Government Expenditures and Economic Growth: A Cointegration Analysis for Thailand under the Floating Exchange Rate Regime," MPRA Paper 109585, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Sedrakyan, Gohar Samvel & Varela-Candamio, Laura, 2019. "Wagner’s law vs. Keynes’ hypothesis in very different countries (Armenia and Spain)," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 747-762.
    7. Hajamini, Mehdi & Falahi, Mohammad Ali, 2018. "Economic growth and government size in developed European countries: A panel threshold approach," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-13.
    8. Ciro Bazán & Víctor Josué Álvarez-Quiroz & Yennyfer Morales Olivares, 2022. "Wagner’s Law vs. Keynesian Hypothesis: Dynamic Impacts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-25, August.
    9. Chiara DEL BO, 2009. "Recent advances in public investment, fiscal policy and growth," Departmental Working Papers 2009-25, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    10. Sheilla Nyasha & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Government Size and Economic Growth: A Review of International Literature," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(3), pages 21582440198, September.
    11. Marios Psychalis & Panagiotis Gournas & Nagia Grigorakou & Petros Dimitrakopoulos & George Stivachtis, 2020. "Fiscal Policy, Growth and Competitiveness in EMU: Evidence from Portugal and Greece," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 10(4), pages 18-24.
    12. Jacobo Campo & Henry Mendoza, 2018. "Public expenditure and economic growth: a regional analysis for Colombia, 1984-2012," Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Economía, issue 88, pages 77-108, Enero - J.
    13. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Siew Ling Yew, 2018. "The effect of military expenditure on growth: an empirical synthesis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 1357-1387, November.
    14. Christos Kollias & Suzanna-Maria Paleologou, 2015. "Defence And Non-Defence Spending In The Usa: Stimuli To Economic Growth? Comparative Findings From A Semiparametric Approach," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(4), pages 359-370, October.
    15. Akram, Vaseem & Rath, Badri Narayan, 2020. "Optimum government size and economic growth in case of Indian states: Evidence from panel threshold model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 151-162.
    16. Jiranyakul, Komain, 2007. "The Relation between Government Expenditures and Economic Growth in Thailand," MPRA Paper 46070, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Usman Khalid & Olivier Habimana, 2021. "Military Spending and Economic Growth in Turkey: A Wavelet Approach," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 362-376, April.
    18. Hasnul, Al Gifari, 2015. "The effects of government expenditure on economic growth: the case of Malaysia," MPRA Paper 71254, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Joscha Beckmann & Marek Endrichs & Rainer Schweickert, 2016. "Government activity and economic growth – one size fits All?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 429-450, July.
    20. Arvin, Mak B. & Pradhan, Rudra P. & Nair, Mahendhiran S., 2021. "Are there links between institutional quality, government expenditure, tax revenue and economic growth? Evidence from low-income and lower middle-income countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 468-489.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    European Union; Economic growth; Granger causality; Government expenditure; C10; H50; O10;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C10 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - General
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

    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:eme:ijsepp:ijse-12-2016-0365. 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: Emerald Support (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.