Is Social Expenditure Responsible for Recent Rise in Public Debt in OECD Countries?
ABSTRACT
In developed economies, social expenditure is alleged to cause the rise in public debt over the last three decades. With dynamic panel data of 34 OECD countries from 1980 to 2014, we find robust evidence that the rise in public debt is not attributable to social expenditure.
KEYWORDS
Social expenditure; Public debt; Public debt in OECD
JEL CLASSIFICATION
H63; H53; E62
Applied Economics Letters
https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2017.1293778
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.001
