Does expenditure composition influence the debt level? Evidence from German federal states

Dan Stegarescu

No 52/2013, Discussion Papers from Deutsche Bundesbank

Abstract: Despite strongly equalized per capita revenue and similar budgetary institutions, fiscal performance is increasingly diverging across German federal states. Given that state and local governments are endowed with expenditure autonomy, this paper investigates whether the composition of sub-national government expenditure has an impact on the degree of indebtedness. A panel analysis for the 1974-2010 period indicates that aside from socio-economic and political factors, the budget structure plays an important role. As expected, a higher ratio of government consumption to investment has a debt-augmenting effect, though, considered separately, larger budget shares of both investment and personnel expenditure are associated with lower debt. Particularly states spending more on transport and communication, and law and order are less indebted, while social spending has a detrimental effect on debt levels.

Keywords: public debt; expenditure composition; sub-national government; German states (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H72 H74 H77 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:bubdps:522013

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