Procyclical government spending : patterns of pressure and prudence in the OECD

Abbott, Andrew James and Jones, Philip (2011) Procyclical government spending : patterns of pressure and prudence in the OECD. Economics Letters, 111 (3). pp. 230-232. ISSN 0165-1765

Abstract

This paper tests for differences in the cyclicality of government spending across functional categories. Evidence from 20 OECD countries suggests that procyclicality is more likely in smaller functional budgets, but capital spending is more likely to be procyclical for the larger spending categories.