The Role of State Budget Expenditure on Economic Growth: Empirical Study in Vietnam

Abstract

Many authors have examined the impact of public spending on economic growth. This study uses ordinary least-squares technique to test the effect of state budget expenditure with two major components: development investment expenditure and recurrent expenditure on Vietnamese economy for the period 2000-2017. The empirical results show that the state budget expenditure of Vietnam has positive effect on the economy, however each main component has different impacts. Recurrent expenditure has significant positive impact on Vietnamese economy while there has no evidence to affirm the relationship between the development investment expenditure and the economic growth. Vietnamese government should restructure the state budget to enhance the positive effect on the economy. In the short run, Vietnam should not increase development investment expenditure due to low efficency in public investment. In the long run, it is necessary to economize recurrent expenditure to reserve a reasonable proportion of state budget for development investment expenditure to build infrastructure for developing the economy. The state budget expenditure should be restructured towards prioritizing recurrent expenditure on human and social relief, reducing public administration expenditure, allocating investment capital from the state budget for key and pervasive projects, avoiding spreading out investments as well as crowding out private investments.