Analysis and measurement of the impact of government spending on Iraq's poverty indicators for 2004-2018

Abstract

Government spending policies are one of the most prominent economic policies affecting some of the economic variables that support the economic growth process, because of their underlying impact on Iraq's long-term poverty rates and their increased impact after 2003, inter alia, on economic, social and political grounds. The research was based on the premise that despite increased spending and strategies to reduce poverty in Iraq, public spending policy suffers from distortions, inefficiencies and effectiveness as income variation increases during the research period. The research aims to analyse and measure the impacts of public spending policy on poverty trends and to clarify the most important mechanisms used, especially in Iraq after 2003, and what their economic and social implications are, as well as to establish a relationship between government spending policies and poverty indicators using a quantitative method. The study found that despite the gradual decline in poverty in Iraq from 40% in 2005 to its lowest level in 2012, which was 18.9% due to public employment and high government expenditure due to increased public revenues, it went back up almost to 24.2% in 2019