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Does expenditure composition influence the debt level? Evidence from German federal states

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  • Stegarescu, Dan

Abstract

Despite strongly equalized per capita revenue and similar budgetary institutions, fiscal performance is increasingly diverging across German federal states. Given that state and local governments are endowed with expenditure autonomy, this paper investigates whether the composition of sub-national government expenditure has an impact on the degree of indebtedness. A panel analysis for the 1974-2010 period indicates that aside from socio-economic and political factors, the budget structure plays an important role. As expected, a higher ratio of government consumption to investment has a debt-augmenting effect, though, considered separately, larger budget shares of both investment and personnel expenditure are associated with lower debt. Particularly states spending more on transport and communication, and law and order are less indebted, while social spending has a detrimental effect on debt levels.

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  • Stegarescu, Dan, 2013. "Does expenditure composition influence the debt level? Evidence from German federal states," Discussion Papers 52/2013, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bubdps:522013
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    public debt; expenditure composition; sub-national government; German states;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • H74 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Borrowing
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism

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