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Government Social Spending and GDP: has there been a change in social policy?

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  • Jesus Clemente
  • Carmen Marcuello
  • Antonio Montañes

Abstract

Government Social Spending (GSS) is made up of a very heterogeneous range of variables, monetary transfers for retirement or illness, unemployment benefits, family services, active labour market policies and health expenditure. We believe that each of these components is of enormous importance to the economic development of a country. As has often been affirmed, however, GSS is one of the economic aggregates most sensitive to the ups and downs of economic growth. In moments of crisis, sharp cuts are almost immediate, and these may or may not be recovered when times are good. In this article, we examine the sensitivity of GSS to the evolution of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in order to reveal the relationship between the two.

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  • Jesus Clemente & Carmen Marcuello & Antonio Montañes, 2012. "Government Social Spending and GDP: has there been a change in social policy?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(22), pages 2895-2905, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:44:y:2012:i:22:p:2895-2905
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2011.568401
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    Cited by:

    1. Marta Simões & Adelaide Duarte & João Sousa Andrade, 2014. "Assessing the Impact of the Welfare State on Economic Growth: A Survey of Recent Developments," GEMF Working Papers 2014-20, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    2. Marta Simões & Adelaide Duarte & João Sousa Andrade, 2014. "Assessing the Impact of the Welfare State on Economic Growth: A Survey of Recent Developments," GEMF Working Papers 2014-20, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    3. Renata Halaskova, 2018. "Structure of General Government Expenditure on Social Protection in the EU Member States Using Differentiation Characteristics," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 14(4), pages 7-21.
    4. Chun-Ping Chang & Chien-Chiang Lee & GenFu Feng & Shao-Lin Ning, 2016. "Does higher government debt link to higher social expenditure? New method, new evidence," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(16), pages 1429-1451, April.

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