This paper investigates the impact of long-run government expenditure and economic growth in different states in South Africa. Economic growth has been below the policy target of 5% stipulated in the National Development Plan Vision 2030, while government expenditure growth has been volatile but...

This paper examines Wagner hypothesis of the growth of public expenditure alongside the growth of economic activity for a panel of 28 European economies during the 1995-2018 period. The hypothesis is verified using Pesaran (2007) panel unit root and Westerlund (2007) cointegration tests that...

The validity of Wagner’s law, which states that the growth of public expenditure can be explained as a result of the increase in economic activity, is tested for Greece during the period 1833-1938. This represents a period of growth, industrialisation and modernisation of the economy,...

Purpose One of the main theories regarding the relationship between government expenditure and gross domestic product (GDP) is Wagner's law. This law was developed in the late-19th century by Adolph Wagner (1835-1917), a prominent German economist, and depicts that an increase in government...

Public investment has shown increasing trends both in nominal and as a share of GDP over years in Ethiopia. These upsurges in public investment are believed to be due to factors that have visible impact on the fiscal posture of the country. To investigate the validity of Wagner's law in Ethiopia;...

This study tests Wagner's law in Nigeria in both the short and long-run using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique of estimation and controlling for structural breaks between the periods 1981-2016. Results showed that both in the short and long-run, evidence pointed to a negative...

This study evaluates the impact of expenditure compositions on economic growth in Afghanistan. The data was collected from the World Bank and Ministry of Finance using a period of 2004 to 2019. The gross domestic product was stated as dependent variable and public expenditure compositions were...

Policy ambiguity in the form of non-directional and non-purposeful use of state resources has made sustainable growth outcomes a mirage in Nigeria. Recent economic crisis prompted the debate on how increased government spending induces sustainable economic growth in Nigeria. This paper examines...

This research paper analyses the relationship between gross domestic product and public expenditures in nominal terms. The analysis is being done by using the standard Peacock-Wiseman specification of the Wagner's law and provides the results for the Visegrád Four countries, i.e. the Czech...

Wagner's Law holds that the relative size of public sector increases with the growth of per capita income. The aim of this study is to investigate the validity of Wagner’s Law in Iran. We test the Wagner’s Law by incorporating a vector Autoregression model (VAR) and vector error correction...

This paper carries out a critical reappraisal of the two contending theories purporting to explain long-run government spending: Wagner's Law and different variants of the ratchet effect. We analyze data spanning from the early 19th century until the present day in Sweden and the United Kingdom....

Public choice economics, like most economics, typically assigns only a small role to various forms of talk between individuals. By contrast, throughout Richard Wagner's oeuvre, there is an undercurrent of talk about talk. This essay argues that talk matters because of two key assumptions in...

The economy of Ghana profiles a trajectory of increasing government expenditure at the backdrop of an inconsistent growth in real GDP. Thus, this study explores the causal relationship between real economic growth and real government expenditure in Ghana between the period 1960 to 2017. The...

In Nigeria, the government activities vis-à-vis public expenditure has grown rapidly both in absolute, relative and as a share of GDP over the years. These growths in government expenditure have been due to certain factors which are believed to have significant effect on the fiscal operation of...

This paper explores the determinants of public employment across the world and finds that it is negatively associated with country size (by population) and positively associated with the income level. The findings show that a country's openness to trade is positively associated with public...

The military coup of August 2020 upended Mali’s fragile liberal democratic order. The junta-led transitionary government defies international pressure to fasten the return of democratically-elected rulers and constitutional rule. The ability of the junta to shape the course of Malian politics...

This study investigate the impact of government expenditure on economic growth in Nepal. Annual series data between 2002/03 to 2015/16 is used for the study. Economic growth is dependent variable whereas, total capital expenditure, total recurrent expenditure, agriculture, non-agriculture,...

In this paper, we analyze the development of public consumption expenditure in Austria starting in the 1940s. We focus our attention on two hypotheses as to why public consumption expenditure has been constantly increasing: Wagner's law and Baumol's cost disease. The estimated income elasticity...

We test several hypotheses concerning the growth of public expenditure by the Austrian monarchy between 1870 and 1913 in relation to Wagner's law, as well as the impact of increasing public indebtedness and the expanding role of the Imperial Council towards the end of the analyzed period, using...

This paper seeks to find the causal relationship between government size and economic growth and attempts to find out whether there is evidence in support of Wagner's Law or not in Pakistan. For this purpose, the annual time series data are used to study the relationship between the economic...

Welfare services are an important part of the Nordic welfare states both financially and for welfare state redistribution. Baumol's cost disease, Wagner's law, and population ageing are often said to bring challenges for the future provision of welfare services. While none of the three poses an...