Zum Zusammenhang zwischen staatlicher Aktivität und wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung

First, the problem of defining the government size and theoretical considerations about the relation between this size and economic growth are discussed. Then the international comparative empirical literature as well as the one discussing the Swiss situation are reviewed. Neither of them comes to firm conclusions. One reason for this is that in international cross-section as well as panel analyses the simultaneity problem is extremely tricky. Moreover, these papers do not take into account institutional differences between the countries. On the other hand, studies which look at the federal unit within one national state and, therefore, avoid the latter problem, are faced with an even more serious simultaneity problem.