Budget Policy and Economic Growth

Abstract

The paper analyzes the prior approaches to budget policy implementation in the context of accelerating economic growth. The authors review the academic issues of short and long term economic growth and discuss the Russian budget policy opportunities and constraints. The authors conclude that (1) in the current situation Russia has quite limited budget measures to smooth economic growth; (2) options to raise total government spending in short and middle-run perspective are absent, and, thus, (3) it is needed to change the expenditure structure along with transforming budget institutions in order to create preconditions for long-run economic growth.