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Wagner versus Keynes: Public spending and national income in Italy

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  • Magazzino, Cosimo

Abstract

Wagner's Law is the first model of public spending in the history of public finance. The aim of this study is to assess its empirical evidence in Italy for the period 1960–2008 at a disaggregated level, using a time series approach. After a brief introduction, a survey of the economic literature on this issue is shown, before estimating the specifications of Wagner's Law for some specific items of public spending (for interests, for final consumption, for labor dependent income, for grants on production, and for public investments), according to the Bank of Italy classification. We found a cointegration relationship for three out of five items. Moreover, results from Granger causality tests show evidence in favor of Wagner's Law only for passive interests spending in the long-run, and for dependent labor income spending in the short-run. Some notes on the policy implications of our empirical results conclude the paper.

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  • Magazzino, Cosimo, 2012. "Wagner versus Keynes: Public spending and national income in Italy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 890-905.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jpolmo:v:34:y:2012:i:6:p:890-905
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2012.05.012
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public spending; Economic growth; Wagner's Law; Time series; Unit root; Cointegration; Causality; Fiscal policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • H60 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - General
    • N44 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: 1913-

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