Abstract
I examine choice of size of government by a planner who has partial knowledge of population preferences and the productivity of public spending. Focusing on income tax-financed spending for infrastructure, I examine scenarios where the planner observes the outcome of a status quo policy and uses various decision criteria to choose policy. The analysis shows that the planner can reasonably choose a wide range of spending levels - thus, a society can rationalise having a small or large government. I conclude that to achieve credible conclusions about the desirable size of government, we need to improve current knowledge of preferences and the productivity of spending vastly.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 359-376 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Economic Journal |
Volume | 124 |
Issue number | 576 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2014 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics and Econometrics