IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ijb/journl/v9y2010i3p233-252.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spending Cuts or Tax Adjustments: How Can UEMOA Countries Control Their Budget Deficits?

Author

Listed:
  • Yaya Keho

    (Ecole Nationale Superieure de Statistique et d'Economie Appliquee, Cote d'Ivoire and Economic Policy Analysis Centre, Cote d'Ivoire)

Abstract

This paper uses cointegration and Granger causality tests to examine the relationship between government revenue and government expenditure for seven African countries over the period 1980 to 2007. Using the bounds testing approach to cointegration, our empirical results suggest that for six out of the seven countries the two fiscal variables are cointegrated. Our results on the direction of causation support the fiscal synchronization hypothesis for Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Senegal in the long-run and for Cote d'Ivoire and Mali in both the short- and long-run. Burkina Faso and Niger are in conformity with the tax-and-spend hypothesis in the short-run while Senegal and Togo follow a spend-and-tax scheme. Our findings suggest that, to control their budget deficits, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger should look for ways to raise revenues, while policymakers in Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, and Senegal should curtail expenditures. Togo should try to raise revenues and control public spending simultaneously.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:ijb:journl:v:9:y:2010:i:3:p:233-252
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/assets/ijbe/past_issue/No.09-3/pdf/vol_9-3-4.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/assets/ijbe/past_issue/No.09-3/abstract/04.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hoover, Kevin D & Sheffrin, Steven M, 1992. "Causation, Spending, and Taxes: Sand in the Sandbox or Tax Collector for the Welfare State?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(1), pages 225-248, March.
    2. Henning Bohn, "undated". "Budget Balance Through Revenue or Spending Adjustments ? Some Historical Evidence for the United States (Reprint 013)," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 03-91, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    3. Mohammad Hasan & Ian Lincoln, 1997. "Tax then spend or spend then tax? Experience in the UK, 1961-93," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(4), pages 237-239.
    4. Bertola, Giuseppe & Drazen, Allan, 1993. "Trigger Points and Budget Cuts: Explaining the Effects of Fiscal Austerity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 11-26, March.
    5. Bardsen, Gunnar, 1989. "Estimation of Long Run Coefficients in Error Correction Models," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 51(3), pages 345-350, August.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Roberto Perotti, 1999. "Fiscal Policy in Good Times and Bad," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 114(4), pages 1399-1436.
    9. 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.
    10. Zapata, Hector O & Rambaldi, Alicia N, 1997. "Monte Carlo Evidence on Cointegration and Causation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 59(2), pages 285-298, May.
    11. Zivot, Eric & Andrews, Donald W K, 2002. "Further Evidence on the Great Crash, the Oil-Price Shock, and the Unit-Root Hypothesis," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 25-44, January.
    12. Mr. Qing Wang & Mr. Ugo Fasano-Filho, 2002. "Testing the Relationship Between Government Spending and Revenue: Evidence From GCC Countries," IMF Working Papers 2002/201, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Tsangyao Chang & Yuan-Hong Ho, 2002. "A Note on Testing ¡°Tax-and-Spend, Spend-and-Tax or Fiscal Synchronization¡±: The Case of China," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 27(1), pages 151-160, June.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Stock, James H & Watson, Mark W, 1993. "A Simple Estimator of Cointegrating Vectors in Higher Order Integrated Systems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(4), pages 783-820, July.
    17. M. Hashem Pesaran & Yongcheol Shin & Richard J. Smith, 2001. "Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 289-326.
    18. Perron, Pierre, 1989. "The Great Crash, the Oil Price Shock, and the Unit Root Hypothesis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(6), pages 1361-1401, November.
    19. José A. Tijerina–Guajardo & José A. Pagán, 2003. "Government Spending, Taxation, and Oil Revenues in Mexico," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 152-164, February.
    20. K. Dhanasekaran, 2001. "Government Tax Revenue, Expenditure and Causality: the Experience of India," Indian Economic Review, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 359-379, July.
    21. 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.
    22. Bassam AbuAl-Foul & Hamid Baghestani, 2004. "The causal relation between government revenue and spending: Evidence from Egypt and Jordan," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 28(2), pages 260-269, June.
    23. 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.
    24. Sobhee, S. K., 2004. "The Causality between Taxes and Public Expenditure in Mauritius,1970-1999: A VECM Approach," International Journal of Applied Econometrics and Quantitative Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 1(3), pages 115-130.
    25. Toda, Hiro Y. & Yamamoto, Taku, 1995. "Statistical inference in vector autoregressions with possibly integrated processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1-2), pages 225-250.
    26. Scott M. Fuess, Jr. & Jack W. Hou & Meghan Millea, 2003. "Tax or Spend, What causes What? Reconsidering Taiwan's Experience," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 2(2), pages 109-119, August.
    27. Norman Loayza & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Luis Servén, 2000. "What Drives Private Saving Across the World?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(2), pages 165-181, May.
    28. Sutherland, Alan, 1997. "Fiscal crises and aggregate demand: can high public debt reverse the effects of fiscal policy?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 147-162, August.
    29. Inder, Brett, 1993. "Estimating long-run relationships in economics : A comparison of different approaches," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1-3), pages 53-68.
    30. 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.
    31. 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.
    32. Jones, Jonathan D. & Joulfaian, David, 1991. "Federal govemment expenditures and revenues in the early years of the American republic: Evidence from 1792 to 1860," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 133-155.
    33. Xiaoming Li, 2001. "Government revenue, government expenditure, and temporal causality: evidence from China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 485-497.
    34. 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.
    35. 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.
    36. Banerjee, Anindya & Dolado, Juan J. & Galbraith, John W. & Hendry, David, 1993. "Co-integration, Error Correction, and the Econometric Analysis of Non-Stationary Data," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288107.
    37. James Payne, 1997. "The tax-spend debate: the case of Canada," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(6), pages 381-386.
    38. Bohn, Henning, 1991. "Budget balance through revenue or spending adjustments? : Some historical evidence for the United States," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 333-359, June.
    39. von Furstenberg, George M & Green, R Jeffrey & Jeong, Jin-Ho, 1986. "Tax and Spend, or Spend and Tax?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(2), pages 179-188, May.
    40. 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.
    41. Tsangyao Chang & Yuan-Hong Ho, 2002. "Tax or Spend, What Causes What: Taiwan's Experience," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 1(2), pages 157-165, August.
    42. Johansen, Soren, 1988. "Statistical analysis of cointegration vectors," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 231-254.
    43. Paul R. Blackley, 1986. "Causality Between Revenues and Expenditures and the Size of the Federal Budget," Public Finance Review, , vol. 14(2), pages 139-156, April.
    44. Alan T. Peacock & Jack Wiseman, 1979. "Approaches To the Analysis of Government Expenditure Growth," Public Finance Review, , vol. 7(1), pages 3-23, January.
    45. Vamvoukas, George, 1997. "Budget Expenditures and Revenues: An Application of Error-Correction Modelling," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 52(1), pages 125-138.
    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. A. Phiri, 2019. "Asymmetries in the revenue–expenditure nexus: new evidence from South Africa," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1515-1547, May.
    2. 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.
    3. Shyh-Wei Chen, 2008. "Untangling the web of causalities among four disaggregate government expenditures, government revenue and output in Taiwan," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 99-107.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Takumah, Wisdom, 2014. "The Dynamic Causal Relationship between Government Revenue and Government Expenditure Nexus in Ghana," MPRA Paper 58579, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. 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.
    8. George A. Vamvoukas, 2011. "Panel Data Modeling and the Tax-Spend Controversy in the Euro Zone," Post-Print hal-00716629, HAL.
    9. 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.
    10. repec:asi:ajoerj:2013:p:420-432 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. 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.
    12. Ghartey, Edward E., 2008. "The budgetary process and economic growth: Empirical evidence of the Jamaican economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1128-1136, November.
    13. Yashobanta, Yashobanta Parida & smruti, Smruti Ranjan Behera, 2012. "Causal Link between Central Government Revenue and Expenditure: Evidence for India," MPRA Paper 43072, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Edward Ghartey, 2010. "Cointegration and Causal Relationship between Taxes and Spending for Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 267-282.
    15. Aliyu Alhaji Jibrilla, 2016. "Fiscal sustainability in the presence of structural breaks: Does overconfidence on resource exports hurt government’s ability to finance debt? Evidence from Nigeria," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1170317-117, December.
    16. Nemanja Lojanica, 2015. "Government Expenditure and Government Revenue: The Causality on the Example of the Republic of Serbia," MIC 2015: Managing Sustainable Growth; Proceedings of the Joint International Conference, Portorož, Slovenia, 28–30 May 2015,, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper.
    17. Kayode Ayinde & Aliyu A. Bello & Opeyemi E. Ayinde & Damilola. B. Adekanmbi, 2015. "Modeling Nigerian Government Revenues and Total Expenditure: Combined Estimators’ Analysis and Error Correction Model Approach," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-14, March.
    18. GHARTEY, Edward E., 2010. "Government Expenditures And Revenues Causation: Some Caribbean Empirical Evidence," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 10(2).
    19. Legrenzi, G. & Milas, C., 2004. "Non-linear adjustments in fiscal policy," Working Papers 04/06, Department of Economics, City University London.
    20. Magazzino, Cosimo, 2010. "Public expenditure and revenue in Italy, 1862-1993," MPRA Paper 27308, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Gabriella Deborah Legrenzi & Costas Milas, 2010. "Spend-and-Tax Adjustments and the Sustainability of the Government's Intertemporal Budget Constraint," CESifo Working Paper Series 2926, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    government revenues; government expenditures; budget deficit; cointegration; causality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H62 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Deficit; Surplus
    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    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:ijb:journl:v:9:y:2010:i:3:p:233-252. 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: Szu-Hsien Ho (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbfcutw.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.