The distributional effects of government aexpenditure to income inequality: a Philippine case analysis

Abstract

The rationale of government expenditure is for greater social welfare and poverty alleviation via reduction in income inequality. Higher government spending is assumed to yield in a lower inequality. Kuznets Inverted U Curve Theory and existing literature suggest that this does not apply in most developing countries due to time-invariant factors present in the economy. Using regional data from 2000-2009, OLS regressions show that government spending and income inequality in the Philippines are inversely related; however, when controlling for other factors constant over time, government spending per region showed to be insignificant.

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Keywords

Government expenditure, Poverty, Social welfare

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