The Impact of Public Expenditures on Economic Growth: A Case Study of Central and Eastern European Countries

Abstract

This study tests the importance of various categories of public expenditure, the functional structure, and growth in the gross domestic product (GDP), using an autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL) model. We document and study the correlation between real GDP growth and 10 different categories of public expenditure, according to their functional classification, using quarterly data for the period 1995–2015, for 10 selected Central and Eastern European countries that joined the European Union. The results of our study, like most recent literature, show that expenditures on education and health care have a positive impact on the economy, while expenditures on defense, economic affairs, general public services, and social welfare have a negative impact.