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Federal, state, and local governments: evaluating their separate roles in US growth

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  • Matthew Higgins
  • Andrew Young
  • Daniel Levy

Abstract

We use US county level data from 1970 to 1998 to explore the relationship between economic growth and government employment at three levels: federal, state and local. Increases in federal, state and local government employments are all negatively related to economic growth. We find no evidence that government is more efficient at lower levels. While we cannot separate out the productive and redistributive services of government, we document that the county-level income distribution became slightly more unequal from 1970 to 1998. We conclude that a release of government-employed labor inputs to the private sector would be growth-enhancing.
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  • Matthew Higgins & Andrew Young & Daniel Levy, 2009. "Federal, state, and local governments: evaluating their separate roles in US growth," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 493-507, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:139:y:2009:i:3:p:493-507
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-009-9405-3
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    Cited by:

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    2. Herath, Shanaka, 2009. "The Size of the Government and Economic Growth. An Empirical Study of Sri Lanka," SRE-Discussion Papers 2009/08, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    3. Bologna, Jamie & Young, Andrew T. & Lacombe, Donald J., 2016. "A spatial analysis of incomes and institutional quality: evidence from US metropolitan areas," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 191-216, March.
    4. Snir, Avichai & Levy, Daniel, 2010. "Economic Growth in the Potterian Economy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 211-236.
    5. Timothy Komarek & Scott Loveridge, 2015. "Firm Sizes And Economic Development: Estimating Long-Term Effects On U.S. County Growth, 1990–2000," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 262-279, March.
    6. Travis Wiseman & Andrew Young, 2011. "Economic Freedom, Entrepreneurship, & Income Levels: Some US State-Level Empirics," Working Papers 11-03, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    7. Ma, Xufei & Ding, Zhujun & Yuan, Lin, 2016. "Subnational institutions, political capital, and the internationalization of entrepreneurial firms in emerging economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 843-854.
    8. Dodge Cahan & Niklas Potrafke, 2021. "The Democrat-Republican presidential growth gap and the partisan balance of the state governments," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 189(3), pages 577-601, December.
    9. Shanaka Herath, 2012. "Size Of Government And Economic Growth: A Nonlinear Analysis," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 57(194), pages 7-30, July - Se.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic growth; Federal government; State government; Local government; County-level data; O40; O11; O18; O51; R11; H50; H70;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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