Efficient government size: France in the 20th century

François Facchini and Mickael Melki

European Journal of Political Economy, 2013, vol. 31, issue C, 1-14

Abstract: The benefits and costs of government suggest an efficient government size. We investigate efficient government size by analyzing the relation between public spending and real GDP for France in the period 1896–2008. The results show a co-integration nonlinear relationship. Our time-series data on France represents one of the longest periods studied in literature. Our empirical findings suggest that efficient government size measured by public spending was reached when public spending was around 30% of GDP. Conclusions point to particularities of countries that suggest efficient government size is specific to different countries.

Keywords: Public spending; Optimal government size; Economic growth; Nonlinear cointegration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H1 H5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (53)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0176268013000189
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Efficient government size: France in the 20 th century (2013)
Working Paper: Efficient government size: France in the 20 th century (2013)
Working Paper: Optimal government size and economic growth in France (1871-2008): An explanation by the State and market failures (2011)
Working Paper: Optimal Government Size and Economic Growth in France (1871-2008): An explanation by the State and Market Failures (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:31:y:2013:i:c:p:1-14

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2013.03.002

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Political Economy is currently edited by J. De Haan, A. L. Hillman and H. W. Ursprung

More articles in European Journal of Political Economy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().