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Government consumption expenditures and the current account

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Abstract

This paper distinguishes between two components of government consumption, expenditure on final goods and expenditure on hours, and compares the effects of changes in these two on the current account. I find that changes in government expenditure on hours do not directly affect the current account and that their impact is considerably smaller than the impact produced by changes in government expenditure on final goods. These findings indicate that considering government consumption as entirely expenditure on final goods leads to overestimating its role in accounting for movements in the current account balance.

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  • Michele Cavallo, 2005. "Government consumption expenditures and the current account," Working Paper Series 2005-03, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2005-03
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    Cited by:

    1. Algieri, Bernardina, 2013. "An empirical analysis of the nexus between external balance and government budget balance: The case of the GIIPS countries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 233-253.
    2. Kayhan, Selim & Bayat, Tayfur & Yüzbaşı, Bahadir, 2013. "Government expenditures and trade deficits in Turkey: Time domain and frequency domain analyses," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 153-158.
    3. Afonso, António & Huart, Florence & Tovar Jalles, João & Stanek, Piotr, 2022. "Twin deficits revisited: A role for fiscal institutions?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).

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    Keywords

    Expenditures; Public; Trade; Gross domestic product;
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