Federal, State, and Local Governments: Evaluating Their Separate Roles in US Growth

Matthew Higgins, Andrew T. Young and Daniel Levy ()

EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, 2009, vol. 139, issue 3-4, 493-507

Abstract: We use US county level data from 1970 to 1998 to explore the relationship between economic growth and government employment at three levels: federal, state and local. Increases in federal, state and local government employments are all negatively related to economic growth. We find no evidence that government is more efficient at lower levels. While we cannot separate out the productive and redistributive services of government, we document that the county-level income distribution became slightly more unequal from 1970 to 1998. We conclude that a release of government-employed labor inputs to the private sector would be growth-enhancing.

Keywords: Economic Growth; Federal Government; State Government; Local Government; and County-Level Data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H50 H70 O11 O18 O40 O51 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/206838/1/P ... oming%20-%202009.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Federal, state, and local governments: evaluating their separate roles in US growth (2009)
Working Paper: Federal, state, and local governments: evaluating their separate roles in US growth (2009)
Working Paper: Federal, State, and Local Governments: Evaluating their Separate Roles in US Growth (2009)
Working Paper: Federal, State, and Local Governments:Evaluating their Separate Roles in US Growth (2008)
Working Paper: Federal, State, and Local Governments: Evaluating their Separate Roles in US Growth (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:espost:206838

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