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Do Government Purchases Affect Unemployment?

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  • Steinar Holden
  • Victoria Sparrman

Abstract

We investigate empirically the effect of government purchases on unemployment in 20 OECD countries, for the period 1960-2007. Compared to earlier studies we use a data set with more variation in unemployment, and which allows for controlling for a host of factors that influence the effect of government purchases. We find that increased government purchases lead to lower unemployment; an increase equal to one percent of GDP reduces un-employment by 0.2 percentage point in the same year. The effect is greater in downturns than in booms, and also greater under a fixed exchange rate regime than under a floating regime.

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  • Steinar Holden & Victoria Sparrman, 2011. "Do Government Purchases Affect Unemployment?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3482, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3482
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    2. Michaillat, Pascal, 2011. "Fiscal Multipliers Over the Business Cycle," CEPR Discussion Papers 8610, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. van der Wielen, Wouter, 2020. "The macroeconomic effects of tax changes: Evidence using real-time data for the European Union," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 302-321.
    4. Michaillat, Pascal, 2012. "A Theory of Countercyclical Government-Consumption Multiplier," CEPR Discussion Papers 9052, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Bjorn Dapi, 2020. "Wage Cyclicality and Composition Bias in the Norwegian Economy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(4), pages 1403-1430, October.
    6. Sylvain Leduc & Daniel J. Wilson, 2012. "Should transportation spending be included in a stimulus program? a review of the literature," Working Paper Series 2012-15, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    7. Nargiza Alymkulova & Nurlan Atabaev & Junus Ganiev, 2016. "Var — analysis of global financial economic crisis impact on public budget and unemployment: evidence from the economy of the Kyrgyz republic," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(4), pages 1090-1101.
    8. Orkun ÇELIK & Elif ERER, 2021. "The Role of Gender in the Government Expenditure and Unemployment Nexus: An Investigation at Regional Level for Turkey," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(2), pages 112-128, June.
    9. Haraldsen, Kristine Wika & Ragnar, Nymoen & Sparrman, Victoria, 2019. "Labour market institutions, shocks and the employment rate," Memorandum 6/2019, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    10. Alymkulova Nargiza Bakytovna & Atabaev Nurlan Uzgenovich & Ganiev Junus Mashrapovich, 2016. "Var - analysis of Global financial economic crisis impact on public budget and unemployment: evidence from the economy of the Kyrgyz Republic," Экономика региона, CyberLeninka;Федеральное государственное бюджетное учреждение науки «Институт экономики Уральского отделения Российской академии наук», vol. 12(4), pages 1090-1101.
    11. Aursland, Thor Andreas & Frankovic, Ivan & Kanik, Birol & Saxegaard, Magnus, 2020. "State-dependent fiscal multipliers in NORA - A DSGE model for fiscal policy analysis in Norway," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 321-353.
    12. Kristine Wika Haraldsen & Ragnar Nymoen & Victoria Sparrman, 2019. "Labour market institutions, shocks and the employment rate," Discussion Papers 901, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
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    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General

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