IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v41y2013i2p227-247.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public Spending Composition in Uganda and its Implications for Growth and Poverty Reduction

Author

Listed:
  • Edward Batte Sennoga
  • John Mary Matovu

Abstract

This article examines the interrelationships between public spending composition and Uganda’s development goals including economic growth and poverty reduction. The authors utilize a dynamic computable general equilibrium model to study these interrelationships. These results demonstrate that public spending composition does indeed influence economic growth and poverty reduction. In particular, the authors show that improved public sector efficiency coupled with reallocation of public expenditure away from the unproductive sectors such as public administration and security to the productive sectors including agriculture, energy, water, and health leads to higher gross domestic product growth rates and accelerates poverty reduction. Moreover, the rate of poverty reduction is faster in rural households relative to the urban households. A major contribution of this article is that investments in agriculture, particularly with a view to promoting value addition and investing in complementary infrastructure (e.g., roads and affordable energy), contribute to higher economic growth rates and also accelerate the rate of poverty reduction.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward Batte Sennoga & John Mary Matovu, 2013. "Public Spending Composition in Uganda and its Implications for Growth and Poverty Reduction," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(2), pages 227-247, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:41:y:2013:i:2:p:227-247
    DOI: 10.1177/1091142112448412
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1091142112448412
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1091142112448412?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mr. John J Matovu, 2000. "Composition of Government Expenditure, Human Capital Accumulation, and Welfare," IMF Working Papers 2000/015, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Stefano Paternostro & Anand Rajaram & Erwin R. Tiongson, 2007. "How Does the Composition of Public Spending Matter?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 47-82.
    3. World Bank, 2002. "The Republic of Uganda - Public Expenditure Review : Report on the Progress and Challenges of Budget Reforms," World Bank Publications - Reports 15336, The World Bank Group.
    4. Jung, Hong-Sang & Thorbecke, Erik, 2003. "The impact of public education expenditure on human capital, growth, and poverty in Tanzania and Zambia: a general equilibrium approach," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 701-725, November.
    5. Reino Hjerppe & Pellervo Hämäläinen & Jaakko Kiander & Matti Viren, 2007. "Do government expenditures increase private sector productivity?," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(5), pages 345-360, April.
    6. repec:bla:devpol:v:21:y:2003:i::p:449-480 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    8. Mr. John J Matovu & Ms. Era Dabla-Norris, 2002. "Composition of Government Expenditures and Demand for Education in Developing Countries," IMF Working Papers 2002/078, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Easterly, William & Rebelo, Sergio, 1993. "Fiscal policy and economic growth: An empirical investigation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 417-458, December.
    10. Devarajan, Shantayanan & Swaroop, Vinaya & Heng-fu, Zou, 1996. "The composition of public expenditure and economic growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 313-344, April.
    11. Aschauer, David Alan & Greenwood, Jeremy, 1985. "Macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 91-138, January.
    12. Agenor, Pierre-Richard & Moreno-Dodson, Blanca, 2006. "Public infrastructure and growth : new channels and policy implications," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4064, The World Bank.
    13. World Bank & International Monetary Fund, 2005. "Global Monitoring Report 2005 : Millennium Development Goals— From Consensus to Momentum," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7325.
    14. World Bank, 2007. "Improving Public Expenditure Efficiency for Growth and Poverty Reduction : A Public Expenditure Review for the Republic of Moldova," World Bank Publications - Reports 8035, The World Bank Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nihal Bayraktar & Blanca Moreno-Dodson, 2018. "Public Expenditures And Growth In A Monetary Union: The Case Of Waemu," Eurasian Journal of Economics and Finance, Eurasian Publications, vol. 6(1), pages 107-132.
    2. Karim, Azreen & Noy, Ilan, 2015. "The (mis) allocation of public spending in a low income country: Evidence from disaster risk reduction spending in Bangladesh," Working Paper Series 4194, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mogues, Tewodaj & Ayele, Gezahegn & Paulos, Zelekawork & Fan, Shenggen, 2006. "How Effective is Public Spending? Public Investment Composition and Rural Welfare in Ethiopia," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21258, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    2. S Tharshan & W L M A Liyanage & P G K Nilanka & E A Selvanathan & M Jayasinghe and S Selvanathan, 2019. "The Impact of Sectoral Government Expenditure on Economic Growth: Evidence from Sri Lanka," Discussion Papers in Economics economics:201902, Griffith University, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics.
    3. Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge & McNab, Robert M., 2003. "Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1597-1616, September.
    4. Chiara DEL BO, 2009. "Recent advances in public investment, fiscal policy and growth," Departmental Working Papers 2009-25, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    5. Krammer, Marius Sorin, 2008. "International R&D spillovers in transition countries: the impact of trade and foreign direct investment," Kiel Advanced Studies Working Papers 446, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    6. Ismael Sanz & Francisco J. Velazquez, 2001. "The evolution and convergence of the government expenditure composition in the OECD countries: an analysis of the functional distribution," European Economy Group Working Papers 9, European Economy Group.
    7. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:8:y:2007:i:4:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Tarhan, Simge, 2008. "Public Investment and Corruption in an Endogenous Growth Model," MPRA Paper 21319, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 Mar 2010.
    9. Sennoga, Edward B. & Matovu, John Mary, 2010. "Public spending composition and public sector efficiency: Implications for growth and poverty reduction in Uganda," Research Series 93808, Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC).
    10. Capolupo, Rosa, 2009. "The New Growth Theories and Their Empirics after Twenty Years," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-72.
    11. Tamoya Christie, 2014. "The Effect Of Government Spending On Economic Growth: Testing The Non-Linear Hypothesis," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 183-204, April.
    12. Gebregziabher, Fiseha & Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel, 2014. "Social spending and aggregate welfare in developing and transition economies," WIDER Working Paper Series 082, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Dimitrios Paparas & Christian Richter, 2015. "Fiscal policy and economic growth: Empirical evidence from the European Union," Working Papers 2015.06, International Network for Economic Research - INFER.
    14. Stegarescu, Dan, 2013. "Does expenditure composition influence the debt level? Evidence from German federal states," Discussion Papers 52/2013, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    15. Dimitrios PAPARAS & Christian RICHTER & Alexandros PAPARAS, 2015. "Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth, Empirical Evidence in European Union," Turkish Economic Review, KSP Journals, vol. 2(4), pages 239-268, December.
    16. Kneller, Richard & Bleaney, Michael F. & Gemmell, Norman, 1999. "Fiscal policy and growth: evidence from OECD countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 171-190, November.
    17. Ismael Sanz & Francisco Javier Velázquez, 2002. "Determinants of the Composition of Government Expenditure by Functions," European Economy Group Working Papers 13, European Economy Group.
    18. Hyun Park, 2010. "Fiscal Policy and Equitable Growth," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 121-140, February.
    19. Hrushikesh Mallick, 2008. "Government spending, trade openness and economic growth in India: A Time series analysis," Centre for Development Studies, Trivendrum Working Papers 403, Centre for Development Studies, Trivendrum, India.
    20. Nawaz, Saima & Mangla, Inayat Ullah, 2021. "The economic geography of infrastructure in Asia: The role of institutions and regional integration," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    21. Martijn Brons & Henri L.F.M. de Groot & Peter Nijkamp, 1999. "Growth Effects of Fiscal Policies - A Comparative Analysis in a Multi-Country Context," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 99-042/3, Tinbergen Institute.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:41:y:2013:i:2:p:227-247. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.