This paper examines the empirical evidence on the contribution that government and, in particular, capital expenditure make to the growth performance of a sample of developing countries. Using the Denison growth accounting approach, this study finds that social expenditures may have a significant impact on growth in the short run, but infrastructure expenditures may have little influence. While current expenditures for directly productive purposes may exert a positive influence, capital expenditure in these sectors appears to exert a negative influence. Experiments with other explanatory variables confirm the importance of the growth of exports to the overall growth rate.

Up-to-date, holistic and comprehensive discussion of public expenditure, its history, value for money, risks and remedies.

Amidst the debates about ‘austerity’ a number of vital debates in public finance have been sidelined. Because the reductions in government spending – small though they have been so far- have been designed to reduce the government’s borrowing requirement, there has been little discussion of whether the size of the state should be reduced in order to facilitate long-run reductions in the burden of taxation. This book traces the history of the growth of the size of the state over the last 100 years whilst also making international comparisons. There is a particular focus on recent and projected future developments which shows that, though the total level of government spending has not decreased significantly in recent years, there has been a big redirection of spending from some areas to others. The authors then examine the evidence on the relationship between taxation and economic growth. As well as reviewing recent literature, they also undertake new modelling that higher taxes are detrimental for growth. In the final part of the book, the whole UK tax system is reconsidered in a proper economic framework. The UK has one of the world’s most complex tax systems and its incoherence has increased over the last five years. Sweeping reforms are proposed to the system which wold involve abolishing around 20 taxes and the development of a simple, predictable tax system based on principles that should gain wide acceptance.

Public expenditure policy, together with efforts to raise revenue,is at the core of efficient and equitable adjustment. Public expenditureproductivity has critical implications for fiscal adjustment, particularly as the competition for limited public resources intensifies.By providing a framework for defining and analyzing public expenditureproductivity and unproductive expenditures, this pamphlet discusseshow economic policymakers may approach these issues.

This work examines public expenditure, explaining the size and the structure of the system of public finance. Suitable for use as a course text, it can function as a point of departure for empirical and analytical studies on the behaviour of governments.

This proceedings volume aims to provide new research methods, theories and applications from various areas of applied economic research. Featuring papers from the 2016 International Conference on Applied Economics (ICOAE) organized by the University of Nicosia and the Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences, this volume presents cutting edge research from all areas of economic science that use applied econometrics as the method of analysis. It also features country specific studies with specific economic policy analyses and proposals. Applied economics is a rapidly growing field of economics that combines economic theory with econometrics to analyse economic problems of the real world usually with economic policy interest. ICOAE is an annual conference started in 2008 with the aim to bring together economists from different fields of applied economic research in order to share methods and ideas. The goal of the conference and the enclosed papers is to allow for an exchange of experiences with different applied econometric methods and to promote joint initiatives among well-established fields likemacro- and microeconomics, international economics, finance, agricultural economics, health economics, education economics, international trade theory and management and marketing strategies. Featuring global contributions, this book will be of interest to researchers, academics, professionals and policy makers in the field of applied economics and econometrics.