Does Increasing Public Service Expenditure Slow the Long-Term Economic Growth Rate?—Evidence from China

Abstract

Economic downturns have increased in recent years, and the impact of COVID-19 has slowed economic growth. The market’s overall pessimism led to a contraction in the government’s fiscal revenue. The Chinese economy has always relied on government investments. Local governments’ productive investments have directly contributed to capital formation, which has promoted rapid economic growth. With the increase in expenditure pressure and the tightening of income caliber, will the continuous growth of the proportion of public service expenditure affect the established growth goals and hinder the efficiency of economic growth? This study explains this based on a general equilibrium model containing two types of government expenditure and uses China’s 2010–2019 provincial panel data for the empirical analysis. The results show that, in the current economic situation, increasing the proportion of public service expenditure is conducive to further economic growth.