Taxation and Public Spending Efficiency: An International Comparison

Antonio Afonso, Joao Jalles and Ana Venâncio ()
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Ana Venâncio: Universidade de Lisboa

Comparative Economic Studies, 2021, vol. 63, issue 3, No 3, 356-383

Abstract: Abstract This paper evaluates the relevance of taxation for public spending efficiency in a sample of OECD economies for the period of 2003–2017. We start by computing the data envelopment analysis (DEA) scores, and then we evaluate the role of tax structure in explaining these public efficiency scores, using a reduced-form panel data regression specification. Our main findings are as follows: inputs could be theoretically lower by approximately 32–34% and expenditure efficiency is negatively associated with taxation. More specifically, direct and indirect taxes negatively affect government efficiency performance, and the same is true for social security contributions.

Keywords: government spending efficiency; public sector performance; tax structure; data envelopment analysis (DEA); nonparametric estimation; panel data; OECD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C23 H11 H21 H50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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Working Paper: Taxation and Public Spending Efficiency: An International Comparison (2019)
Working Paper: Taxation and Public Spending Efficiency: An International Comparison (2019)
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DOI: 10.1057/s41294-021-00147-2

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