Approaches To the Analysis of Government Expenditure Growth

Alan T. Peacock and Jack Wiseman
Additional contact information
Alan T. Peacock: University College, Buckingham
Jack Wiseman: University of York

Public Finance Review, 1979, vol. 7, issue 1, 3-23

Abstract: The article surveys the literature on public expenditure growth, and makes some suggestions for possible future developments. At the theoretical level, it is argued that public choice and associated theoretical constructs have improved our understanding by insisting that public expenditure growth must be explained by the utility-maximizing behavior of the demanders and suppliers of public services in defined technical conditions, through "political" as well as "economic" behaviour. But what we yet lack is a comprehensive intellectual construct capable of embracing these elements, and also of dis aggregation for purposes of empirical enquiry. After a commentary on the conceptual and econometric problems of establishing empirical laws, the article suggests two potentially complementary approaches: through factor analysis at the general econometric level, and through the development of models of group behavior leading to "explanations" in terms of the changing relationships of social groups through time. The tentative results of an attempt to use factor analysis are summarized, but the authors are conscious of the difficulties and cautious about the potential of either approach .

Date: 1979
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (77)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/109114217900700101 (text/html)

Related works:
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:sae:pubfin:v:7:y:1979:i:1:p:3-23

DOI: 10.1177/109114217900700101

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Public Finance Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().