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Quality of Government and Living Standards

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Grigoli Author-Email: fgrigoli@imf.org Author-Name: Eduardo Ley Author-Email: eley@worldbank.org

    (World Bank)

Abstract

It is generally acknowledged that a government’s output is difficult to define and its value is hard to measure. The practical solution adopted by national accounts systems is to equate output value to input costs, but well-documented inefficiencies in government activities make this approximation questionable. One solution is to purge from gross domestic product (GDP) the fraction of government inputs that is wasted. This note illustrates such a correction, computing corrected per capita GDP on the basis of two studies that estimate efficiency scores for several dimensions of government activities. Results show that the correction could be significant and reorder the rankings of living standards.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Grigoli Author-Email: fgrigoli@imf.org Author-Name: Eduardo Ley Author-Email: eley@worldbank.org, 2012. "Quality of Government and Living Standards," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 89, pages 1-6, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:prmecp:ep89
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Francesco Grigoli Author-Email: fgrigoli@imf.org Author-Name: Eduardo Ley Author-Email: eley@worldbank.org, 2012. "Quality of Government and Living Standards," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 89, pages 1-6, September.
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    10. Mr. Francesco Grigoli & Mr. Eduardo Ley, 2012. "Quality of Government and Living Standards: Adjusting for the Efficiency of Public Spending," IMF Working Papers 2012/182, International Monetary Fund.
    11. repec:pri:rpdevs:understanding_ppps_complete_with_abstract_14nov08 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Michael Kremer & Nazmul Chaudhury & F. Halsey Rogers & Karthik Muralidharan & Jeffrey Hammer, 2005. "Teacher Absence in India: A Snapshot," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 658-667, 04/05.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Francesco Grigoli Author-Email: fgrigoli@imf.org Author-Name: Eduardo Ley Author-Email: eley@worldbank.org, 2012. "Quality of Government and Living Standards," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 89, pages 1-6, September.
    3. Siham MATALLAH & Lahouari BENLAHCENE, 2021. "Public service delivery dilemma and economic growth challenges in the MENA Region," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(4(629), W), pages 31-50, Winter.
    4. Musharraf Rasool Cyan & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Violeta Vulovic, 2014. "New approaches to measuring tax effort," Chapters, in: Richard M. Bird & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), Taxation and Development: The Weakest Link?, chapter 2, pages 27-68, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Francesco Grigoli, 2015. "A Hybrid Approach to Estimating the Efficiency of Public Spending on Education in Emerging and Developing Economies," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 2(1), pages 19-32, February.
    6. Musharraf Cyan & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & VIoleta Vulovic, 2013. "Measuring tax effort: Does the estimation approach matter and should effort be linked to expenditure goals?," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1308, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • B0 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General
    • E0 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General
    • E1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models
    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment

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