IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/jecman/v45y2023i1p147-181n9.html

Public sector spending, governance, and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Mumuni Sulemana

    (Institute of Governance Humanities and Social Sciences, Pan African University Yaounde, Cameroon)

  • Njong Aloysius Mom

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, University of Bamenda, Bamenda, Cameroon)

Abstract

Aim/purpose – This study examined the impact of public sector spending and governance on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and further assessed the role of governance in the causal relationship between public sector spending and economic growth in the sub-region. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed the Panel Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) estimator on data spanning the period 2002 to 2020 across a sample of 31 selected countries in SSA. To check for the robustness of the results, we adopted the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) panel non-causality test to detect Granger causality in the relationships among the variables. Findings – The findings show that spending in the public sectors alone, such as education and health, does not always yield the needed outcome of promoting economic growth. Government education expenditure stimulates economic growth in SSA, albeit the effect is statistically insignificant, whereas government health expenditure has a growth-limiting effect in SSA. The results reveal that government effectiveness, rule of law, political stability, and absence of violence/terrorism are among the governance indicators that can help to fast-track economic prosperity in SSA. However, the results further show that good governance can act as a stimulant to invigorate the effectiveness of public sector spending in achieving economic growth in SSA. The growth-enhancing complementary role of good governance to public sector spending is robust across all governance indicators except political stability for government education spending and regulatory quality for government health spending. Research implications/limitations – The findings imply that strengthening good governance in SSA is non-negotiable in managing and using public funds allocated to the public sectors and in achieving sustainable economic growth, poverty alleviation, and income inequality reduction in the sub-region. However, the findings of this study are limited to the SSA region and may not apply to other regions of the globe. Originality/value/contribution – The contribution of this paper is that it examines the moderation effect of governance in the causal relationship between public spending and economic growth in SSA while accounting for cross-sectional dependence. The paper also contributes to the existing literature by using disaggregated governance and public sector spending components to ascertain the robustness of the results and better inform policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Mumuni Sulemana & Njong Aloysius Mom, 2023. "Public sector spending, governance, and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Economics and Management, Sciendo, vol. 45(1), pages 147-181, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:jecman:v:45:y:2023:i:1:p:147-181:n:9
    DOI: 10.22367/jem.2023.45.08
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.08
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22367/jem.2023.45.08?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. Li, Ying & Tariq, Muhammad & Khan, Saleem & Rjoub, Husam & Azhar, Aisha, 2022. "Natural resources rents, capital formation and economic performance: Evaluating the role of globalization," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Haggard, Stephan & Tiede, Lydia, 2011. "The Rule of Law and Economic Growth: Where are We?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 673-685, 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. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2009. "Economic transition and growth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(7), pages 1153-1185, November.
    5. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    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. Fabio Mazzola & Pietro Pizzuto, 2020. "Great Recession and club convergence in Europe: A cross‐country, cross‐region panel analysis (2000–2015)," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 676-711, June.
    2. Wafa Ghardallou & Dorsaf Sridi, 2020. "Democracy and Economic Growth: a Literature Review," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(3), pages 982-1002, September.
    3. Schreiner, Lena & Madlener, Reinhard, 2022. "Investing in power grid infrastructure as a flexibility option: A DSGE assessment for Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    4. Aomar Ibourk & Zakaria Elouaourti, 2023. "Regional convergence and catching up process in Africa: A tale of three clubs," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(6), pages 1339-1372, August.
    5. Iamsiraroj, Sasi, 2016. "The foreign direct investment–economic growth nexus," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 116-133.
    6. van de Klundert, T.C.M.J. & Smulders, J.A., 1991. "Reconstructing growth theory : A survey," Other publications TiSEM 19355c51-17eb-4d5d-aa66-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Canavire-Bacarreza, Gustavo & Martínez-Vázquez, Jorge & Vulovic, Violeta, 2013. "Taxation and Economic Growth in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 4583, Inter-American Development Bank.
    8. Kumar, Sanjesh & Singh, Baljeet, 2019. "Barriers to the international diffusion of technological innovations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 74-86.
    9. Carine Nourry, 2012. "Dasgupta, D.: Modern growth theory," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 105(1), pages 97-100, January.
    10. Fofack, Hippolyte, 2008. "Technology trap and poverty trap in Sub-Saharan Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4582, The World Bank.
    11. Minh Quang Dao, 2012. "Government expenditure and growth in developing countries," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 12(1), pages 77-82, January.
    12. Wilson, E.J. & Chaudhri, D.P., 2000. "Endogeneity, Knowledge and Dynamics of Long Run Capitalist Economic Growth," Economics Working Papers wp00-03, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    13. Michalis Nikiforos, 2020. "Demand, Distribution, Productivity, Structural Change, and (Secular?) Stagnation," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_945, Levy Economics Institute.
    14. I. Hakan Yetkiner, 2006. "Saglik ile Buyume," Ege Academic Review, Ege University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, vol. 6(2), pages 83-91.
    15. Mark Knell & Simone Vannuccini, 2022. "Tools and concepts for understanding disruptive technological change after Schumpeter," Jena Economics Research Papers 2022-005, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    16. Marion Payen & Patrick Rondé, 2020. "Culture, Institutions and Economic Growth," Working Papers of BETA 2020-18, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    17. Charles R. Hulten & Robert M. Schwab, 1993. "Endogenous Growth, Public Capital, and the Convergence of Regional Manufacturing Industries," NBER Working Papers 4538, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Oukhallou, Youssef, 2019. "Military Expenditure and Economic Development," MPRA Paper 98352, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Ehsan Rajabi & Junaina Muhammad, 2014. "Does The Government Size Cause Economic Growth? Empirical Evidence from Selected ASEAN Countries," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 1, pages 3-20.
    20. Sayef BAKARI, 2025. "The three-ways linkages between domestic investment, exports and economic growth: new evidence from Saudi Arabia," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(1(642), S), pages 37-58, Spring.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H - Public Economics
    • I - Health, Education, and Welfare
    • O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth

    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:vrs:jecman:v:45:y:2023:i:1:p:147-181:n:9. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://reference-global.com .

    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.