Government is a major player in the development of an economy. Government's public financial operations involving mobilization of revenue, and its spending has considerable implications on the growth, distribution and stability necessitating a careful study to enable informed mid course policy corrections to the macroeconomic developments. A critical review of public expenditure is imperative in ensuring optimal use of public resources for the maximization of welfare. The book provides an empirical understanding of historical trends and composition of public expenditure at the central and the sub national levels; the effectiveness of public expenditure control systems and accountability issues; the political economy of spending decisions; public expenditure reforms undertaken in India and international best options that can guide the corrective process in India. Given the global shift in focus from 'outlays' to 'outcomes' it is important to put in place a sound framework to track the results of government expenditure programs to guide the informed expenditure decision making process. The book documents the features of useful frameworks and steps involved in adopting a robust results framework. Fiscal management of Covid-19 is an important component of the book. The purpose of this volume is to reach out a comprehensive and updated understanding of empirical issues in public expenditure and its management in India to the students of Public Finance.

This book examines public expenditure and Indian development policy between 1960 and 1970.

Based on interviews with government officials and ministers involved in public expenditure decision making. Examines the process of allocating funds and the factors affecting decisions regarding the level of aggregate public expenditure and makes recommendations for improvement. Using time series data on public expenditure, covers four decades of planned development.

The book “Public Expenditure, Economic Growth and Inflation” addresses the most relevant issue of inflation in Indian economy. It makes an interesting reading as it attempts to establish the relationship among three macro-economic indicators, i.e., public expenditure, economic growth and inflation. The book gives an overview of the increasing public expenditure and its composition throughout the years after independence. Based on the secondary data the study makes a sincere effort to establish the possible relationship between public expenditure, inflation and economic growth. The book finds out that the Wagner law of increasing state activity is applicable in India both in absolute and relative terms. Economic Growth and public expenditure are positively correlated. Economic growth and inflation are inversely related. As public expenditure is motivated by maximization of social welfare, reduction in public expenditure means to sacrifice the social welfare objective.

Of the many different ways in which economists have tried to analyse public expenditure, the most relevant to Indian economic development is that which links the level of public expenditure with the rate at which the state can accumulate capital. The abstract theory of this link, however, must be complemented by a historical account of the degree to which a state accumulation policy was understood by Indian policy makers, and of the other (often inconsistent) elements in the economic strategy of Indian nationalism. After attempting to provide accounts both of the abstract theory and of the institutional and policy context within which it was applied, this book analyses original empirical data on public expenditure in India between 1960 and 1970. The real growth rate of public expenditure, its functional and economic composition at the all-India level are presented, and the strong contrast between the patterns of the first and last five year periods is elucidated. The effect of the 1965-67 droughts and bad harvests in producing this contrast is assessed.