The Distributional Effects of Public Expenditure

Gerd Schwartz and Teresa Ter‐Minassian

Journal of Economic Surveys, 2000, vol. 14, issue 3, 337-358

Abstract: It is commonly agreed that economic policies, including budgetary policies, can have potentially strong distributional effects. Traditional economic analysis held that economic policies affected the income distribution primarily through their impact on the rate of growth. More recently, it has come to be recognised that qualitative aspects of economic growth are probably more important than the rate of growth itself. While recent research has confirmed the potential role of expenditure policies as a redistributive tool, it has also shown that redistribution does not necessarily have to come at the expense of economic growth and efficiency. Although there are substantial analytical and technical problems to be faced in the design of equitable and cost‐effective public expenditure programmes, unfavourable distributional outcomes of these programmes can usually be traced more to political and institutional pressures than to purely technical factors. JEL Classification number: H5

Date: 2000
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