A Survey of the International Empirical Evidence on the Tax-Spend Debate

Abstract

The concern over budget deficits in the mid-1980s generated a strand of literature known as the tax-spend debate, sometimes labeled the revenue-expenditure nexus. This literature has focused on the intertemporal relationship between revenues and expenditures in the generation of budget deficits. In light of the numerous empirical time-series studies on the subject, the intent of this survey article is to provide an overview of the work to date as well as provide suggestions for future research in this area.