Spend-and-tax: a panel data investigation for the EU

Using bootstrap panel analysis, allowing for cross-country correlation, without the need of pre-testing for unit roots, we study the causality between government spending and revenue for the EU in the period 1960-2006. We find spend-and-tax causality for Italy, France, Spain, Greece, and Portugal, while tax-and-spend evidence is present for Germany, Belgium, Austria Finland and the UK, and for several EU New Member States. Moreover, in the run-up to EMU there was some shifting away from a spend-and-tax strategy, implying adjustments of fiscal behaviour.