Public Expenditure and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Developing Countries

Abstract

Regardless of theoretical grounds that presumed a positive relationship between government spending and economic growth, the extant research on this nexus is inclusive. This article re-examines the relationship between public expenditure and economic growth using more copious panel data set covering 59 countries in 1990–2019. Our empirical results confirm the unidirectional causality between economic growth and government expenditure where the causation runs between public spending and GDP growth. The results at large support the Keynesian framework that asserts the importance of government expenditure in stimulating economic growth. Further, the analysis reveals that after considering all the control variables such as trade accessibility, investment and inflation public spending positively affects economic growth. With regards to control variables, it was found that investment has a significant and positive bearing on economic growth. Evidence from the regression estimates further displays that trade openness encourages evolution in developing countries. However, population growth and unemployment have a detrimental effect on economic growth.