IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v7y1979i1p3-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Approaches To the Analysis of Government Expenditure Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Alan T. Peacock

    (University College, Buckingham)

  • Jack Wiseman

    (University of York)

Abstract

The article surveys the literature on public expenditure growth, and makes some suggestions for possible future developments. At the theoretical level, it is argued that public choice and associated theoretical constructs have improved our understanding by insisting that public expenditure growth must be explained by the utility-maximizing behavior of the demanders and suppliers of public services in defined technical conditions, through "political" as well as "economic" behaviour. But what we yet lack is a comprehensive intellectual construct capable of embracing these elements, and also of dis aggregation for purposes of empirical enquiry. After a commentary on the conceptual and econometric problems of establishing empirical laws, the article suggests two potentially complementary approaches: through factor analysis at the general econometric level, and through the development of models of group behavior leading to "explanations" in terms of the changing relationships of social groups through time. The tentative results of an attempt to use factor analysis are summarized, but the authors are conscious of the difficulties and cautious about the potential of either approach .

Suggested Citation

  • Alan T. Peacock & Jack Wiseman, 1979. "Approaches To the Analysis of Government Expenditure Growth," Public Finance Review, , vol. 7(1), pages 3-23, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:7:y:1979:i:1:p:3-23
    DOI: 10.1177/109114217900700101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/109114217900700101
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/109114217900700101?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Albert Breton, 1974. "The economic theory of representative government: A reply," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 129-133, December.
    2. Moses Abramovitz & Vera F. Eliasberg, 1957. "The Growth of Public Employment in Great Britain," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number abra57-1, March.
    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. Tsjalle van der Burg & Aloys Prinz, 2010. "Empowering Firm Owners by Separating Voting from Buying and Selling Shares," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(1), pages 69-91.
    2. S Milner, 1994. "Charting the Coverage of Collective Pay Setting Institutions 1895-1990," CEP Discussion Papers dp0215, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Partha Gangopadhyay & Shyam Nath, 2001. "Bargaining, Coalitions and Local Expenditure," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(13), pages 2379-2391, December.
    4. Hummel Jeffrey Rogers & Lavoie Don, 1994. "National Defense And The Public-Goods Problem," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2-3), pages 1-26, June.
    5. Hanna Shevchenko, 2017. "Regulatory Policy And Optimization Of Investment Resource Allocation In The Model Of Functioning Of Recreation Industry," Baltic Journal of Economic Studies, Publishing house "Baltija Publishing", vol. 3(1).
    6. Dennis Mueller & Peter Murrell, 1986. "Interest groups and the size of government," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 125-145, January.
    7. Michael A. Nelson, 2000. "Electoral Cycles and the Politics of State Tax Policy," Public Finance Review, , vol. 28(6), pages 540-560, November.
    8. van Velthoven, Ben & van Winden, Frans, 1985. "Towards a politico-economic theory of social security," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 263-289, March.
    9. Eric Dubois, 2016. "Political Business Cycles 40 Years after Nordhaus," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01291401, HAL.
    10. Francisco Arcelus & Gary Mauser & Z. Spindler, 1978. "The right to vote no: revising the voting system and resuscitating the F-Y voter," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 67-83, December.
    11. J G Gibson & P A Watt, 1989. "Privatisation versus Poll Tax: A Public Choice Analysis of the Popularity of Two Thatcher ‘Flagships’," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 7(3), pages 341-351, September.
    12. Aleksandar Vasilev, 2013. "On the cost of rent-seeking by government bureaucrats in a Real-Business-Cycle framework," Working Papers 2013_20, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    13. Daumann Frank, 1999. "Interessenverbände im politischen Prozeß - Einflußnahme und Möglichkeiten der Begrenzung," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 50(1), pages 171-206, January.
    14. Gene Mumy, 1980. "Long-run efficiency and property rights sharing for pollution control," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 59-74, January.
    15. R J Bennett, 1987. "Tax Assignment in Multilevel Systems of Government: A Political-Economic Approach and the Case of Spain," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 5(3), pages 267-285, September.
    16. M. Clercq, 1980. "Les Fondements Des Dépenses Publiques Un Aperçu Critique De La Théorie," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 295-319, September.
    17. Charles Rowley & Martin Walker, 1979. "Pareto-optimality and gains-form-trade: a public choice interpretation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 123-127, March.
    18. Yujiro Hayami, 1990. "La Communauté rurale, le Marché et l'Etat," Économie rurale, Programme National Persée, vol. 196(1), pages 49-56.
    19. Irfan Kurniawan & Riyanto, 2020. "Should I Bribe? Re-Examining the Greasing-the-Wheels Hypothesis in Democratic Post-Soeharto Indonesia," Economics and Finance in Indonesia, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, vol. 66, pages 123-140, Desember.
    20. Thomas A. Garrett & Russell M. Rhine, 2006. "On the size and growth of government," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 88(Jan), pages 13-30.

    More about this item

    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:sae:pubfin:v:7:y:1979:i:1:p:3-23. 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: SAGE Publications (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.