Government Spending
Government Spending
Government Spending
spending
Government spending can be financed by government borrowing, taxes, custom duties, the sale
or lease of natural resources, and various fees like national park entry fees or licensing fees.[3]
When governments choose to borrow money, they have to pay interest on the money
borrowed.[4] Changes in government spending are a major component of fiscal policy used to
stabilize the macroeconomic business cycle.
Theories of public
expenditure
Several theories of taxation exist in public economics. Governments at all levels (national,
regional and local) need to raise revenue from a variety of sources to finance public-sector
expenditures. The details of taxation are guided by two principles: who will benefit, and who can
pay. Public expenditure means the expenditure on the developmental and non-developmental
activity such as construction of roadways and dams, and other activity.
Rules or principles that govern the expenditure policy of the government are called "canons of
public expenditure". Economist George Findlay Shirras[6] laid down the following four canons of
public expenditure:
The criteria and pre-conditions for arriving at this solution are collectively referred to as the
principle of maximum social advantage. Taxation (government revenue) and government
expenditure are the two tools. Neither of excess is good for the society, it has to be balanced to
achieve maximum social benefit. Dalton called this principle as "Maximum Social Advantage"
and Pigou termed it as "Maximum Aggregate Welfare".
The Market for Capital (the Loanable Funds Market) and the
Crowding Out Effect. An increase in government deficit spending
"crowds out" private investment by increasing interest rates and
lowering the quantity of capital available to the private sector.
Government spending can be a useful economic policy tool for governments. Fiscal policy can
be defined as the use of government spending and/or taxation as a mechanism to influence an
economy.[12][13] There are two types of fiscal policy: expansionary fiscal policy, and
contractionary fiscal policy. Expansionary fiscal policy is an increase in government spending or
a decrease in taxation, while contractionary fiscal policy is a decrease in government spending
or an increase in taxes. Expansionary fiscal policy can be used by governments to stimulate the
economy during a recession. For example, an increase in government spending directly
increases demand for goods and services, which can help increase output and employment. On
the other hand, contractionary fiscal policy can be used by governments to cool down the
economy during an economic boom. A decrease in government spending can help check
inflation.[12] During economic downturns, in the short run, government spending can be changed
either via automatic stabilization or discretionary stabilization. Automatic stabilization is when
existing policies automatically change government spending or taxes in response to economic
changes, without the additional passage of laws.[14][12] A primary example of an automatic
stabilizer is unemployment insurance, which provides financial assistance to unemployed
workers. Discretionary stabilization is when a government takes actions to change government
spending or taxes in direct response to changes in the economy. For instance, a government
may decide to increase government spending as a result of a recession.[14] With discretionary
stabilization, the government must pass a new law to make changes in government spending.[12]
John Maynard Keynes was one of the first economists to advocate for government deficit
spending as part of the fiscal policy response to an economic contraction. According to
Keynesian economics, increased government spending raises aggregate demand and increases
consumption, which leads to increased production and faster recovery from recessions.
Classical economists, on the other hand, believe that increased government spending
exacerbates an economic contraction by shifting resources from the private sector, which they
consider productive, to the public sector, which they consider unproductive.[15]
In economics, the potential "shifting" in resources from the private sector to the public sector as
a result of an increase in government deficit spending is called crowding out.[12] The figure to the
right depicts the market for capital, otherwise known as the market for loanable funds. The
downward sloping demand curve D1 represents demand for private capital by firms and
investors, and the upward sloping supply curve S1 represents savings by private individuals. The
initial equilibrium in this market is represented by point A, where the equilibrium quantity of
capital is K1 and the equilibrium interest rate is R1. If the government increases deficit spending,
it will borrow money from the private capital market and reduce the supply of savings to S2. The
new equilibrium is at point B, where the interest rate has increased to R2 and the quantity of
capital available to the private sector has decreased to K2. The government has essentially
made borrowing more expensive and has taken away savings from the market, which "crowds
out" some private investment. The crowding out of private investment could limit the economic
growth from the initial increase government spending.[14][13]
Composition
Public expenditure can be divided into COFOG (Classification of the Functions of Government)
categories. Those categories are:
Social protection
pensions, subsidies for family and
children, unemployment subsidies, R&D
(Research and Development) on social
protection.
Health
public health services, medical products,
medical appliances and equipment,
hospital services, R&D on healthcare.
Economic Affairs
general economic, agriculture, fuel and
energy, commercial and labour affairs,
forestry, fishing and hunting, mining,
manufacturing, transport,
communication etc.
Environmental protection
waste management, pollution
abatement, protection of biodiversity
and landscape etc.
Final consumption
Government spending on goods and services for current use to directly satisfy individual or
collective needs of the members of the community is called government final consumption
expenditure (GFCE) It is a purchase from the national accounts "use of income account" for
goods and services directly satisfying of individual needs (individual consumption) or collective
needs of members of the community (collective consumption). GFCE consists of the value of the
goods and services produced by the government itself other than own-account capital formation
and sales and of purchases by the government of goods and services produced by market
producers that are supplied to households—without any transformation—as "social transfers" in
kind.[17]
Government spending or government expenditure can be divided into three primary groups,
government consumption, transfer payments, and interest payments.[18]
In the US the total investment in medical and health research and development (R&D) in the US
had grown by 27% over the five years from 2013 to 2017, and it is led by industry and the federal
government. However, the industry accounted for 67% of total spending in 2017, followed by the
federal government at 22%. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) accounted for the
lion's share of federal spending in medical and health research in 2017 was $32.4 billion or
82.1%.[29]
Also, academic and research institutions, this includes colleges, and universities, independent
research (IRIs), and independent hospital medical research centres also increased spending,
dedicating more than $14.2 billion of their own funds (endowment, donations etc.) to medical
and health R&D in 2017. Although other funding sources – foundations, state and local
government, voluntary health associations and professional societies – accounted for 3.7% of
total medical and health R&D expenditure.
On the other hand, global health spending continues to increase and rise rapidly – to
US$7.8 trillion in 2017 or about 10% of GDP and $1.80 per capita – up from US£7.6 trillion in
2016. In addition, about 605 of this spending was public and 40% private, with donor funding
representing less than 0.2% of the total although the health spending in real terms has risen by
3.79% in a year while global GDP had grown by 3.0%.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the increase in health spending in low-
income countries, and it rose by 7.8% a year between 2000 and 2017, while their economies
grew by 6.4%, it is explained in the figure. However, the middle-income economies health
spending grew more than 6%, and average annual growth in high-income countries was 3.5%,
which is about twice as fast as economic growth. In contrast, health spending by the high-
income countries continues to represent to be the largest share of global spending, which is
about 81%, despite it covers only 16% of world's population; although it down from 87% in 2000.
The primary drivers of this change in global spending on healthcare are India and China, which
they moved to higher-income groups. Furthermore, just over 40% of the world population lived in
low-income countries, which is now dropped to 10%. Moreover, significant spending increments
were in upper-middle-income economies, where population share has more than doubled over
the period, and share of global health spending nearly also doubled due to China and India's vast
population joining that group. Unfortunately, all other spending share income groups had
declined.[30]
From the continent view, North America, Western Europe, and Oceanic countries have the
highest levels of spending, and West Central Asia, and East Africa the lowest, which is closely
followed by South Asia, it is explained in the figure.
It is also true that fast economic growth is associated with increased health spending and
sustained rapid economic growth between 2000 and 2017. Even more, fast economic growth
which is generally associated with the higher government revenues and health spending is
mostly located in Asia such as China, India and Indonesia followed by the Middle East and Latin
America. In these countries, the real health spending per capita grew by 2.2 times and increased
by 0.6 percentage point as per a share of GDP from 2000 to 2017.
Spending on physical infrastructure in the U.S. returns an average of about $1.92 for each $1.00
spent on nonresidential construction because it is almost always less expensive to maintain
than repair or replace once it has become unusable.[32]
Likewise, government spending on social infrastructure, such as preventative health care, can
save several hundreds of billions of dollars per year in the U.S., because for example cancer
patients are more likely to be diagnosed at Stage I where curative treatment is typically a few
outpatient visits, instead of at Stage III or later in an emergency room where treatment can
involve years of hospitalization and is often terminal.[33]
Afghanistan 9 23
Albania 23 28
Algeria 10 40
Angola 6 39
Argentina 35 41
Armenia 17 25
Australia 26 35
Austria 42 51
Azerbaijan 13 34
Bahamas 16 23
Bahrain 3 31
Bangladesh 10 16
Barbados 27 41
Belarus 25 36
Belgium 44 53
Belize 23 29
Benin 16 22
Bhutan 14 38
Bolivia 22 35
Botswana 28 32
Brazil 35 39
Bulgaria 26 34
Burkina Faso 14 24
Burma 4 19
Burundi 14 40
Country Tax burden % GDP Govt. expend. % GDP
Cambodia 11 20
Cameroon 11 22
Canada 31 42
Cape Verde 20 32
Chad 5 26
Chile 19 23
China 19 24
Colombia 15 29
Comoros 12 22
Congo 8 26
Costa Rica 22 18
Côte d'Ivoire 13 26
Croatia 33 43
Cuba 24 67
Cyprus 27 46
Czech Republic 35 43
Denmark 48 58
Djibouti 20 35
Dominica 24 36
Dominican Republic 13 16
Ecuador 18 44
Egypt 14 32
El Salvador 15 22
Equatorial Guinea 2 35
Eritrea 50 34
Country Tax burden % GDP Govt. expend. % GDP
Estonia 33 38
Ethiopia 11 18
Fiji 23 28
Finland 43 55
France 44 56
Gabon 10 25
Gambia 13 26
Georgia 25 32
Germany 37 45
Ghana 15 24
Greece 31 52
Guatemala 11 15
Guinea 16 22
Guinea-Bissau 9 21
Guyana 21 31
Haiti 13 34
Honduras 16 26
Hong Kong 14 19
Hungary 36 49
Iceland 36 47
India 19 29[37]
Indonesia 12 19
Iran 9 22
Iraq 2 45
Ireland 28 48
Israel 33 45
Italy 43 50
Country Tax burden % GDP Govt. expend. % GDP
Jamaica 23 32
Japan 28 42
Jordan 14 33
Kazakhstan 15 22
Kenya 20 29
Kiribati 20 92
South Korea 26 30
Kuwait 1 39
Kyrgyzstan 19 36
Laos 14 21
Latvia 27 39
Lebanon 17 30
Lesotho 38 63
Liberia 20 31
Libya 1 67
Lithuania 16 38
Luxembourg 37 42
Macau 35 17
Madagascar 11 16
Malawi 20 35
Malaysia 15 29
Maldives 16 43
Mali 14 25
Malta 34 42
Mauritania 18 28
Country Tax burden % GDP Govt. expend. % GDP
Mauritius 18 25
Mexico 11 27
Republic of Moldova 31 39
Mongolia 33 45
Montenegro 24 44
Morocco 23 35
Mozambique 20 34
Namibia 28 37
Nepal 13 19
Netherlands 39 50
New Zealand 32 48
Nicaragua 18 26
Niger 14 20
Nigeria 5 29
North Macedonia 26 31
Norway 43 44
Oman 2 38
Pakistan 9 20
Panama 18 27
Paraguay 13 19
Peru 17 19
Philippines 12 16
Poland 32 44
Portugal 31 49
Qatar 3 31
Country Tax burden % GDP Govt. expend. % GDP
Romania 28 37
Russia 30 36
Rwanda 13 27
Saint Lucia 25 35
Samoa 23 44
Saudi Arabia 4 35
Senegal 19 29
Serbia 35 45
Seychelles 32 36
Sierra Leone 12 22
Singapore 14 17
Slovakia 29 38
Slovenia 37 51
Solomon Islands 37 51
South Africa 27 32
Spain 32 45
Sri Lanka 12 21
Sudan 7 18
Suriname 19 27
Swaziland 23 31
Sweden 45 51
Switzerland 29 34
Syria 10 N/A
Taiwan 9 23
Tajikistan 20 27
Country Tax burden % GDP Govt. expend. % GDP
Tanzania 15 27
Thailand 16 23
Togo 17 24
Tonga 18 29
Tunisia 21 35
Turkey 25 35
Turkmenistan 18 15
Uganda 17 21
Ukraine 38 46
United Kingdom 36 49
Uruguay 27 33
Uzbekistan 20 31
Vanuatu 16 25
Venezuela 13 40
Vietnam 21 31
Yemen 5 29
Zambia 19 24
Zimbabwe 30 35
Brunei 24 34
Public social spending by
country
Public social spending comprises cash benefits, direct in-kind provision of goods and services,
and tax breaks with social purposes provided by general government (that is central, state, and
local governments, including social security funds).[38]
2015 Public social spending[38]
France 31.7
Finland 30.6
Belgium 29.2
Italy 28.9
Denmark 28.8
Austria 28.0
Sweden 26.7
Greece 26.4
Spain 25.4
Germany 25.0
Portugal 24.1
Norway 23.9
Slovenia 22.4
Netherlands 22.3
Luxembourg 22.2
OECD 21.0
Hungary 20.7
Switzerland 19.6
Poland 19.4
Slovakia 19.4
Australia 18.8
Public social spending
Country
% of GDP
Canada 17.2
Estonia 17.0
Ireland 17.0
Israel 16.0
Iceland 15.7
Latvia 14.4
Chile 11.2
Korea 10.1
European Union
Public expenditures represented 46.7 percent of total GDP of the European Union in 2018.
Countries with the highest percentage of public expenditure were France and Finland with 56
and 53 percent, respectively. The lowest percentage had Ireland with only 25 percent of its GDP.
Among the countries of the European Union, the most important function in public expenditure is
social protection. Almost 20 percent of GDP of European Union went to social protection in
2018. The highest ratio had Finland and France, both around 24 percent of their GDPs. The
country with least social protection expenditure as percent of its GDP was Ireland with 9
percent. The second largest function in public expenditure is expenditure on health. The general
government expenditure on health in European Union was over 7 percent of GDP in 2018. The
country with highest share of health expenditure in 2018 Denmark with 8.4 percent. The least
percentage had Cyprus with 2.7 percent. General public services had 6 percent of total GDP of
European Union in 2018, Education around 4.6 percent and all other categories had less than 4.5
percent of the GDP.[16][39]
Research, assessments and
transparency
There is research into government spending such as their efficacies or effective design or
comparisons to other options as well as research containing conclusions of public spending-
related recommendations. Examples of such are studies outlining benefits of participation in
bioeconomy innovation[40][41][42] or identifying potential "misallocations"[43] or
"misalignments".[44] Often, such spending may be broad – indirect in terms of national interests
– such as with human resources/education-related spending or establishments of novel reward
systems. In some cases, various goals and expenditures are made public to various degrees,
referred to "budget transparency" or "government spending transparency".[45][46][47][48][49]
Similarly in regard to openness, a campaign by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has
called for a principle of "Public Money, Public Code" – that software created using taxpayers'
money is developed as free and open source software,[54][55] and Plan S calls for a requirement
for scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants being published as
open access.[56][57][58]
Public sector ethics may also concern government spending,[59] affecting the shares and
intentions of government spending or their respective rationales (beyond ethical principles or
implications of the contextual socioeconomic structures), as well as corruption or diversion of
public funds.[60]
In 2012, following a United States presidential Campaign to Cut Waste, the Office of
Management and Budget issued a memorandum to the heads of federal departments and
agencies calling for the avoidance of wasteful expenditure, identifying "practical steps" and
setting specific targets for reduction of expenditure on travel, conference attendance and
expense, real property and fleet management.[61]
Science funding
Governments fund various research beyond healthcare and medical research and defense
research . Sometimes, relevant funding decision-making makes use of coordinative and
prioritizing tools, data or methods, such as evaluated relevances to global issues or international
goals or national goals or major causes of human diseases and early deaths (health
impacts).[44]
Energy infrastructure
History
1) Defense expenditure due to modernization of defense equipment by the navy, army and air
force to prepare the country for war or for prevention causes-for-growth-of-public-expenditure.
5) Creation of super national organizations – E.g., the United Nations, NATO, European
community and other multinational organizations that are responsible for the provision of public
goods and services on an international basis, have to be financed out of funds subscribed by
member states, thereby adding to their public expenditure.
6) Foreign aid – Acceptance by the richer industrialized countries of their responsibility to help
the poor developing countries has channeled some of the increased public expenditure of the
donor country into foreign aid programmes.
7) Inflation – This is the general rise in the price level of goods and services. It increases the
cost of all activities of the public sector and thus a major factor in growth in money terms of
public expenditure
Present
Since the late 1980s, the average public expenditure to GDP ratio is increasing slowly. The only
industrialized countries that reduced significantly are New Zealand, Ireland and Norway. One of
the reasons is growing skepticism about governmental intervention in the economy.[70]
See also
Rahn curve
Open government
Government operations
Public finance
Government budget
Government waste
Fiscal policy
Fiscal council
Sovereign wealth fund
Mandatory spending
Taxpayers unions
Eurostat
Government spending in the United
Kingdom
Government spending in the United
States
List of countries by government
spending as percentage of GDP
Expenditure incidence
References
External links