This paper examines whether fiscal illusion can help to explain the behavior of federal government expenditures in Brazil during period 1990-2011. The analyses is based on a median voter model that admits that the degree of tax visibility may affect the individual’s perception of his tax...

Some politicians argue for the splitting and combining of states to increase government productivity, but there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the optimal size of a state. Using data from Indian states, I test a model of the optimal size of the state. I find that size and preference...

The EU's Lisbon strategy of 2000 (renewed in 2005) calls for substantial improvements in the quality and sustainability of public finance. In this context, the current study concentrates on the growth potential of public expenditures. National Reform Programs are analyzed in order to draw...

Public spending has effects on growth and distribution which are complex to trace and difficult to quantify. But the composition of public expenditure has become the key instrument by which development agencies seek to promote economic development. In recent years, the development assistance to...

We compare the size, structure and evolution of the public sectors in Canada and the United States primarily using national income accounting data. In the course of this investigation, which is accompanied by a substantial spreadsheet covering the period from 1929 to 2003/2004, questions are...

A well-functioning public expenditure management (PEM) system is considered a critical pillar of government efficiency, on par with a low-distortion tax system and efficient tax administration. The paper discusses PEM systems in developing countries using an analytical framework based on...

This paper attempts to identify the effect of fiscal decentralization on public sector efficiency (PSE). We employ data envelopment analysis on a panel of 21 OECD countries over the period 1970-2000 to construct two alternative PSE indicators that reflect the governmental goals of economic...

Using a modified version of Wagner's Law, this paper sets to analyze the determinants of government expenditure in Kenya. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was used to analyze time-series data for the period 1970 and 2017. The study finding reveals that GDP, population, trade openness,...

Some politicians argue for the splitting and combining of states to increase government productivity, but there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the optimal size of a state. Using data from Indian states, I test a model of the optimal size of the state. I find that size and preference...