The cyclicality of education, health, and social security government spending

• Author(s): Afonso, António ; Jalles, João Tovar
• Date: 2012
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/4691
• Origin: Repositório da UTL
• Subject(s): Business cycle, , ,; Output gap; Functional spending; Panel analysis
• Document Type: Other
• Language: English

Description

We use a panel of developed and emerging countries for the period 1970-2008 to assess the cyclicality of education, health, and social security government spending. We mostly find acyclical behaviour, but evidence also points to counter-cyclicality for social security spending, particularly in OECD countries, consistent with the operation of automatic stabilizers.