General Government Expenditures Research Articles

Assessing the Relationship between External Debt Financing and Gross Domestic Product in Ghana

The level of external debt of a country is of fundamental importance in every economy, as external debt may reflect the effectiveness and efficiency of an economy. The study was motivated by the ever-increasing rate at which Ghana has consistently borrowed from external sources. This study aimed to assess the relationship between external debt financing and gross domestic product and establish the determinants of external debt financing in Ghana. Using selected time series data (Gross domestic product, external debt, population growth, inflation, Literacy rate, export of goods and service, general government expenditure, and interest on external debt, 1978 - 2017) based on literature reviewed on the macro economy of Ghana, the study employed Autoregressive Distributed lag model (ARDL) after the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test statistic and Philip Perron proofs not to be stationary at levels but stationary at first difference. For that matter, ARDL was used to assess the impact of external debt financing on GDP to establish the determinants of external debt. Diagnostic tests which include auto-correlation, heteroscedasticity, and normality were also performed. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that, variables were related only in the short run but not related in the long run. It was recommended that, external borrowing, population growth, inflation, general government expenditure and literacy rate should be control since their coefficients proves to have negative impact on GDP and on external debts

Factors influencing inequality in government health expenditures within African regional economic communities

BackgroundThe unequal distribution of government health spending within African regional economic groupings is a significant barrier to achieving Universal Health Coverage and reaching health-related Sustainable Development targets. It also hampers the progress toward achieving the African Union’s vision of an integrated and prosperous Africa, free of its heavy disease burden. Based on panel data from 36 countries nested into eight Regional Economic Communities (RECs), this study probes the effects of countries' macro-level factors on government health expenditure disparities within eight regional economic communities from 2000 to 2019.MethodWe use the multilevel linear mixed-effect method to show whether countries' trade gains, life expectancy at birth, poverty, urbanization, information and communication technology, and population aging worsen or reduce the differences for two government health expenditure indicators.ResultsThe insignificant effect of GDP per capita suggests that in most regional economic groupings, the health sector is still not considered a high-priority sector regarding overall government expenditures. Countries' poverty levels and urbanization increase the domestic general government health expenditure disparities as a percentage of general government expenditure within the regional groupings. However, trade gains and ICT diffusion reduce these disparities. Furthermore, the results reveal that external health expenditure per capita and life expectancy at birth positively impact within-regional inequalities in the domestic general government health expenditure per capita. In contrast, GDP per capita and trade gains tend to reduce them.ConclusionsThis study enriches the research on the determinants of government health expenditure inequality in Africa. Policies that can spur growth in trade and ICT access should be encouraged. Countries should also make more efforts to reduce poverty. Governments should also develop policies promoting economic growth and planned urbanization.

Public support for carbon tax in South Korea: The role of tax design and revenue recycling

AbstractCarbon tax is widely regarded as an effective and efficient method to reduce carbon emissions. However, the introduction of carbon tax has faced resistance from the public and interest groups. In this article, we examine the determinants of public support for carbon taxation in South Korea. While the expected cost of the carbon tax on individual citizens appears to be the most important determinant of preferences towards carbon tax, we also find that the public support changes depending on the design of the revenue recycling system. The public is more likely to support a carbon tax scheme that is earmarked to support the energy‐poor population compared to one that uses tax revenues for general government expenditures. The use of carbon tax revenues to create green sector jobs appears to significantly increase the support for carbon tax compared to the use of revenue for the general environment budget. Our findings suggest that while opposition towards carbon tax exists, certain design features such as universal carbon dividends can alleviate some resistance from the public.

Analiza efikasnosti sektora visokog obrazovanja u Europi - pristup temeljen na DEA analizi prozora

The aim of this study is to evaluate relative efficiency of tertiary education in the period between 2013 and 2020. Since resources used for higher education are scarce and education is mostly publicly funded, it is important to use these resources as efficiently as possible. In this paper, DEA Window Analysis was used, which allows a dynamic evaluation and comparison of efficiency results over time. The empirical analysis is carried out on higher education systems of 30 European countries through eight-year long period. Two inputs (academic staff and general government expenditure on higher education) and four outputs (graduates, mobile students from abroad, citable documents and citations) were chosen as variables in an output-oriented 3-year window DEA model for the assessment of technical efficiency (TE) as well as pure technical (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE) as its components. The results show that efficiency varies across countries and over time. Overall efficiency peaked in 2016 and declines steadily thereafter. When analysing the sources of inefficiency, PTE as a measure of management performance is overall higher than SE as a measure of optimal production size until 2017, except for 2015 when it is slightly lower than SE. We can conclude that the source of inefficiency until 2017 is generally the nonoptimal production size. From 2018, the situation changes and management performance becomes the main source of inefficiency. The results of this study may help policy makers in European countries in their efforts to increase the efficiency of higher education.

Economy and happiness in the Visegrad Four and Scandinavian Four countries

This study examines whether there is a connection between certain economic indicators (gross domestic product, the aggregate amount of investment, inflation, average consumer prices, unemployment rate, general government revenue and expenditures, general government net borrowing costs and general government net debt, current account balance, and general well-being) and the indicators published in World Happiness Report, Life Expectancy, Ladder of Life, Ecological Footprint, Happy Planet Index, and the Human Development Index. The scope of the research extends to the Scandinavian Four (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden) and the Visegrad Four countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia). The research findings indicate the existence of such a connection determined by general government revenue.

Effects of public expenditures on environmental pollution: evidence from G-7 countries.

In this study, the effect of public expenditures and, their sub-components on environmental pollution is discussed in G-7 countries. Two different periods were used in the study. These are the period 1997-2020 for general public expenditure, and the period 2008-2020 for public expenditure sub-components. For cointegration, Westerlund cointegration test was used, and according to the analysis result there is a cointegration relationship between general government expenditure and environmental pollution. Panel Fourier Toda-Yamamoto causality test was used to determine the causality relationship between public expenditures and environmental pollution and the result indicates that there is bidirectional causality between public expenditures and CO2 on a panel basis. For models estimation, System the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) method was used. The findings of the study indicate that general public expenditures decrease environmental pollution. Considering at the results of the sub-components of public expenditures, housing and community amenities, social protection, health expenditure, economic affairs, recreation, culture & religion expenditures have a negative effect on environmental pollution. Other control variables generally have a statistically significant effect on environmental pollution. Energy consumption and population density increase environmental pollution but environmental policy stringency index, renewable energy and GDP per capita reduce environmental pollution.

Influence of general government expenditure on the development of sports entrepreneurship: The case of some OECD countries

The low level of the nation’s health and physical activity highlights the need to find additional mechanisms for the development of the sports sphere, one of which is to increase its financing. This paper aims to investigate how an increase in general government expenditure on recreation and sports affects sports entrepreneurship (turnover or gross premium written in the sports industry; value added at factor cost of sports enterprises; sports industry market size) and the share of the population involved in sports (as an indicator characterizing the development of sports). The study used the panel unit root test and fixed and random effects models. Modeling proved that the increase in general government expenditure on recreation and sports by 1% largely determines the increase in value added at factor cost of sports enterprises (by 5.48%). A significantly less effect is for turnover or gross premium written in the sports industry (by 0.85%), and the smallest is for the sports industry market size (by 0.4%). A 1% increase in general government expenditure on recreation and sport has the greatest impact in the Czech Republic (by 2.37%) and Slovakia (by 2.44%) and the least – in Australia (by 0.4%). The share of the population involved in sports is almost independent of general government expenditure on recreation and sports in all 10 OECD countries.

United Kingdom aid cuts: implications for financing health systems.

The United Kingdom (UK) used to be the second largest bilateral provider of official development assistance (ODA) for health. However, in 2021 the UK government cut its annual aid budget by 30%. We aim to understand how these cuts might affect financing for health systems in UK aid recipient countries. We conducted a retrospective analysis of domestic and external funding for 134 countries that received UK aid for the 2019-2020 budget year. We grouped countries into two cohorts: those that continued to receive aid in 2020-2021 ("budget") and those that did not ("no budget"). Data was collected from publicly available datasets and we compared UK's ODA, UK's health ODA with total ODA, general government expenditures and domestic general government health expenditure to assess the donor dependency and donor concentration of budget and no budget countries. Budget countries are more reliant on external aid to finance their governments and health systems than no budget countries, with a handful of exceptions. While the UK does not appear to be a major ODA contributor among most no budget countries, it is in many budget countries. Two no budget countries in particular may be faced with health systems financing challenges given their high ratios of UK health aid to domestic government health expenditures: the Gambia (1.24:1) and Eritrea (0.33:1). Although "safe" for this budget cycle, a number of low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have very high ratios of UK health aid to domestic government health expenditures, including South Sudan (3.15:1), Sierra Leone (0.48:1), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (0.34:1). The 2021-2022 UK aid cuts could have negative impacts in a few countries highly dependent on UK health aid. Its departure could leave these countries with rather large funding gaps to fill and create a more concentrated donor climate.

Health outcome convergence in Africa: the roles of immunization and public health spending

BackgroundReducing health outcomes disparities in Africa is a major concern for policymakers. Inter-country disparities in Africa is well documented. However, little is known about the accurate trajectory of these disparities over time. Thus, this paper investigates the convergence hypothesis in health outcomes in 40 African countries using data from the World Development Indicators. The study used panel data from 2000 to 2019.MethodThe study employs a nonlinear time-varying factor model to test the convergence hypothesis on infant mortality rate, under-five mortality, and life expectancy at birth. Then, we use the marginal effects of the ordered logit regression model to investigate the factors that explain club memberships.ResultsThe findings showed the absence of overall convergence for the three variables of interest. However, we identified the presence of convergence clubs. Moreover, we observed substantial gaps between the estimated clubs. The marginal effect results reveal that real GDP per capita, population structure, urbanization, trade, access to basic sanitation, and external health expenditure are essential to club formation. In addition, DTP immunization and the general government health expenditure as a percentage of the general government expenditure (our Abuja Declaration instrument) also play a significant role in explaining the club membership.ConclusionThe findings suggest that policymakers should develop and implement targeted club-specific health policies. Furthermore, interventions to promote increased immunization, particularly among children, should be encouraged. Governments should also make substantial efforts to increase the share of their national budget allocated to the health sector by at least 15 percent.

Estimating the Footprint of Government on the Economy (Article)

INTRODUCTION
 Total Government Expenditure and the percentage that it represents of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is often taken as a measure of the size of the government’s footprint and its involvement in the economy. A low percentage reflects that the government’s capacity to influence the economy through fiscal instruments is limited, and low rates are often cited as prime reasons for governments pursuing aggressive taxation policies to build their financial muscle. In Pakistan, the general government expenditure as a percentage of GDP stands at about 22 percent. Many quarters, including multilateral donors agencies, have persistently called for the government to increase its tax revenue collection capacity through either increasing its tax rates and/or increasing the number of total tax filers in the country because the government is always in a deficit. The issue of the tax system in Pakistan is a separate matter and has been discussed through various other PIDE publications over the years.

The transition journey of EU vs. NON-EU countries for waste management.

This study aims to identify macroeconomic indicators that can be used as predictors of waste management on the European continent. The study was conducted taking in account the intensification of urbanizations, the increase of standard of leaving that fuels to consumerism phenomenon, and imposed challenges for waste management. The research focuses on the interval from 2010 to 2020 for 37 European countries grouped according to EU15/EU28/non-EU and EU/non-EU members. As macroeconomic indicators, human development index (HDI), GDP/capita. GNI/capita, general government expenditure with environment protection, people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, population by educational attainment level, sex, and age (%)-less than primary, primary and lower secondary education (levels 0-2) were used. A multilinear regression model with collinearity diagnosis was applied to find out the direction and intensity of the contribution of independent variables and to hierarchy the predictors of waste management.. For multiple comparison between and inside of each grouping of countries, statistical inference methods were used: one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test multiple comparisons and independent samples Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn's post hoc test. The main conclusions of the study are that EU15 countries have the highest average values for most indicators of waste management, comparative with EU28 and with non-EU countries, followed by a group of EU28 countries. For indicators of recycling rate of packaging waste by type of packaging-metallic and recycling rate of e-waste, the non-EU countries have the highest values of mean compared with the EU15 and EU28 groups of countries. This can be explained by the high level of development of the some non-euro area countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein) that have intense concerns about waste recycling and have the necessary financial strength to carry out complex environmental protection programs.

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES SECTOR DEVELOPMENT AS A FACTOR OF FORMING CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES: EXPERIENCE OF THE STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION FOR UKRAINE

The purpose is to identify the key regularities of the information and communication technology sector (ICTS) development in the context of forming creative types of economic activity in the EU countries for the implementation of the European experience in Ukrainian practice of the structural modernization of the economy. Scientific methods of induction and deduction, synthesis and comparison, statistical estimation of variation features, and multiple regression analysis are used. The following scientific and methodological approach to evaluating the ICTS development in the EU countries was worked out: carrying out a comparative analysis of main trends in the social and economic development of the ICTS; evaluating the indicators of a spatial variation for major social and economic indexes of the ICTS development; determining a multiple regression equation to identify the factors having an impact on employment in this sector. In accordance with the dynamics of the main indicators of variation for the ICTS in the EU countries, the presence of spatial differentiation in output, gross fixed capital formation, general government expenditure and final consumption expenditure of households, relative homogeneity in employment were revealed. The author has substantiated the role of the ICTS in strengthening spatial asymmetries in the creative industries development in the EU countries. Such factors influencing employment in the ICTS of the EU countries as demographic situation, R&D expenditures, unemployment expenditures and frequency of internet access were identified by means of multiple regression analysis. Given the experience of the EU countries, in Ukraine, the growing influence of the ICTS on the formation of creative industries and structural modernization of the economy is connected to improving the current social and economic situation after the war, government measures for stimulating its development, overcoming the demographic crisis and growing households demand for information and communication services.

General financial and economic structure of modern Russia

Subject. The article addresses financial and economic structure of modern Russia. Objectives. The purpose is to determine the financial and economic structure of modern Russia. Methods. The study draws on the systems approach, using the methods of statistical, neural network, and cluster analysis. Results. The paper shows a connection between the growth of accounts payable and the excess of growth in the profitability of sold goods, products, works, services over the growth in return on assets, and, as a result, increasing need to implement measures to tighten the monetary policy of the Bank of Russia concerning inflation targeting. It also defines the importance of GDP growth, including GDP per capita (in terms of purchasing power parity, constant and current prices) for the financial and economic structure of modern Russia that links the ability to provide general government expenditures (debt), primary and net lending (government sector borrowings), the volume of exports and imports. The positive moment of the current financial and economic structure is steadily high values of growth in the current account balance, in particular through a stable decline in the volume of exports of goods and services. Conclusions. Understanding the current financial and economic structure of modern Russia demonstrates the monetary authorities the importance of increase in the current account balance in the context of GDP growth and general government expenditures at current prices in the national currency.

BRICS-T ÜLKELERİNDE POLİTİK İSTİKRAR VE EKONOMİK BÜYÜME İLİŞKİSİ ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA

In recent years, it is seen that studies on the strong relationship between political stability and economic growth have increased. Political stability is an important element in the policies that political actors or political parties will implement during their term of office. İn this study, 43 percent of the world's population and the world's economy is estimated to comprise 30% BRICS-T countries to investigate the relationship between political stability and economic growth performance is the main purpose of the study. For this purpose, the relationship between political stability and economic growth in the BRICS-T countries, which are among the developing countries, in the 1996-2020 period was tested with the panel data method. In the study, Durbin-Hausman cointegration tests were used for the cointegration relationship when determining the degree of stasis of variables with the second generation CIPS unit root test. Finally, the second generation AMG estimator test was used to determine the coefficient and direction of the long-term cointegration relationship of variables. According to the results of the analyzes, it was found that the impact of political stability, inflation and general government expenditures on economic growth in the BRICS-T countries is statistically significant and negative.

DOES CULTURAL ECONOMICS AFFECT COUNTRY’S COMPETITIVENESS?

Purpose – the purpose of the article is to identify factors of cultural economics and examine their impact on countries’ competitiveness. Research methodology – in this study, the following factors have been determined to affect the competitiveness of the European Union countries: cultural employment by age (18–65), general government expenditure on cultural services, households expenditure on cultural goods, persons working as creative and performing artists, authors, journalists and linguists engaged in individual activity and employment. Panel data, which are processed with the Gretl software, are used for the study. Findings – the results revealed that all the distinguished factors affect the competitiveness of the European Union countries; however, general government expenditure by function has the most significant effect. Research limitations – the article analyses all countries of the European Union except Romania because there is a lack of statistical data on this country, which interferes with the research. Practical implications – as cultural economics is linked to both the public and private sectors, the revenue and the products it generates undoubtedly contribute to the country’s economic development and, hence, competitiveness. Originality/Value – cultural economics is an interdisciplinary field of scientific research described and analysed by various authors as the interaction of human-made activities with new technologies, various artistic forms, knowledge, and creativity. Consequently, cultural economics has received more and more attention. However, the factors of cultural economics and their impact on a country’s competitiveness level is a fragmentarily examined topic which shows its originality.

Development of China's health care system in the time of COVID‐19: Challenges, opportunities, and call for actions

Development of China's health care system in the time of COVID‐19: Challenges, opportunities, and call for actions

The predictors of COVID-19 mortality among health systems parameters: an ecological study across 203 countries

BackgroundHealth systems responsiveness is the key to addressing infectious disease threats such as pandemics. The paper outlines an assessment of health systems resilience by exploring the association of health systems and Global Health Security (GHS) parameters with case load and mortality resulting from COVID-19 across 203 countries using an ecological design.MethodologyCorrelation analysis was performed to assess the relationship of each of the indicators with COVID 19 cases and deaths per million population. Stepwise multiple regression models were developed to determine the predictors of COVID-19 cumulative cases and deaths per million population separately.ResultsGlobal health security indicators seemed to have a strong association when analyzed individually but those did not necessarily translate into less burden of cases or deaths in the multivariable analysis. The predictors of cumulative deaths per million population included general government expenditure on health as a proportion of general government expenditure, responsiveness of the system to prevent the emergence and release of pathogens and governance related voice and accountability.ConclusionTo conclude, health financing parameters and preventive activities with regard to emergence of pathogens were better predictors of cumulative COVID-19 cases and deaths per million population compared to other health systems and global health security indicators.

FACTORS OF BUDGETARY FUNDING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: EXPERIENCE FOR UKRAINE

The experience of the EU countries in the formation of the general government expenditures on tertiary education in order to adapt it to the social and economic conditions of Ukraine has been investigated. The purpose of the article is to find out the peculiarities and basic regularities of governmental funding for tertiary education in the EU countries in view of sustainable and human development and to define prospects for improving budgetary support for this sector in the economy of Ukraine. Such scientific methods as induction, deduction, comparison and econometric modelling have been applied. The author has worked out the scientific and methodological approach to identifying factors influencing the governmental financing of tertiary education in the EU countries for sustainable and human development: to carry out a comparative analysis of the dynamics of key indicators of the general government expenditures on tertiary education and evaluate their variation; to determine the main factors which influence the general government expenditures on tertiary education by means of multiple econometric modelling. The following public financing features of higher education in the EU countries are specified: the tendency to increase the volume of the general government expenditures on tertiary education per capita; changing in their structure; their sustainability by GDP. The analysis of the variation indicators has showed the existence of a significant level of differentiation inthe general government expenditures on tertiary education per capita in these countries and relative homogeneity for other indicators (general government expenditures on tertiary education (% of GDP and% of the general government expenditures), their growth rates (% of the previous year). Based on the multiple econometric models, it is determined that GDP at market prices, the total annual net earnings of a single person without children, the situation in the labour market for people with tertiary education, the number of students enrolled in tertiary education (on bachelor’s or equivalent level and at public education institutions) influenced the budgetary funding of higher education in the EU countries. Taking into account the experience of the EU countries, the author has substantiated that in Ukraine, upgrading the government funding of tertiary education for the sustainable and human development is associated with macroeconomic stability, improving the material well-being of individuals and a decrease in unemployment.

Assessing public financing for nutrition in Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka

The objective of this study was to assess public financing for nutrition in Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka to identify limitations of available data and to discuss policy implications. A variant of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement methodology was used. Budget allocations and expenditures for relevant government ministries during 2012-2018 were identified. Nutrition-related line items were tagged using definitions of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions. Data were aggregated by year and calculated in constant United States dollars (USD). Expenditures by year were presented as a proportion of gross domestic product and general government expenditures. The percent utilization of budget allocations and proportion of funding from central government sources were determined. Per capita expenditures on nutrition-specific interventions varied from USD 1.08-8.76 and for nutrition-sensitive interventions varied from USD 20.22-51.20. Nutrition-specific expenditures as a percent of gross domestic product ranged from 0.08% in Sri Lanka in 2017% to 0.34% in Nepal in 2016. The median utilization rate was 64% for nutrition-specific and 84% for nutrition-sensitive interventions. Nutrition-specific funding financed by the central government was 90.7% in Bhutan and 99.4% in Sri Lanka. This study revealed the need to prioritize and invest in evidence-based interventions, including balancing investments in nutrition-specific versus -sensitive interventions. Challenges in estimation of nutrition expenditures and cross-country comparison were also observed, highlighting the need for appropriate nutrition line item tagging and standardized systems for data collection.

Measuring the Impact of General Allocation Funds, Labor and Government Expenditures on Economic Growth

This study aims to analyze the effect of General Allocation Funds, Labor and Government Expenditures on Economic Growth in East Kotawaringin Regency. The research method used in this research is a descriptive-quantitative research approach. The analytical tool used in his study is multiple linear regression with the t test, F test, and the coefficient of determination test. The results of this study indicate that partially the variables of the General Allocation Fund and Government Expenditures have a significant effect on Economic Growth in East Kotawaringin Regency. While the Labor variable does not have a significant effect on Economic Growth in East Kotawaringin Regency. Simultaneously, the variables of the General Allocation Fund, Labor, and Government Expenditures together have an effect on the Economic Growth variable. The implications of this research include, among others, to encourage the economy of East Kotawaringin Regency, the general allocation fund should be increased for the advancement and improvement of economic growth as well as improving the quality of the Laborforce in the East Kotawaringin area.Keywords: Economic Growth; General Allocation Fund; Government Expenditure; Labor