Government Size and Economic Growth : An Investigation of Causality in India

The development literature of the post-war period justified governmental intervention in economic development on a number of grounds such as market failure, trade pessimism and further impoverishment of poor countries through trade. In line with the prevalent mainstream thinking, the Indian government implemented an inward-looking model of growth, and tried to engineer an economic take-off through its direct and indirect involvement. The objective of this paper is to examine whether the government actually succeeded in acting as an engine of growth in India. Taking 1950-1996 as the period of study, this paper finds that a large government size (in terms of investment and total expenditures) has a negative influence on growth in the short term although there is no long-term relationship between government size and GDP