Search results

This study examines the fiscal impact of tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) on state spending by expanding the popular, narrow view of examining TELs and taking into account the scope, purpose, and restrictiveness of individual state TELs. Using an efficient estimator, called fixed effect vector decomposition I employ a set of panel data from all fifty states for the period 1997 - 2006. While a number of studies have been inconclusive about the impact of state TELs on spending, this study finds that having a TEL is not what matters. Rather, the impact of TELs depends on the actual features of the individual TEL. Further, TELs impact different categories of spending in different ways and, under the right conditions, TELs can have the desired impact and effectively reduce state spending.

The assertions of the government that poverty eradication and social development generally are the main challenges and that it is fully committed to address these issues have continued over time. But how genuine this claim is a matter of great concern. So, this chapter may be an attempt to analyze patterns in social sector expenditure on education (SSEE) and its impact on Human Development Index (HDI) among different states in India. The combined social sector expenditures (SSE) of Centre and States, which provide the best picture of India’s commitment towards the social sector in education, may be assessed. There are diverse ways of inspecting the trends in expenditures. Firstly, to look at SSE as a proportion of gross state domestic product (GSDP), secondly is to calculate SSE as percentage of aggregate budget expenditure, thirdly is to look at the real per capita expenditure (PCE) (at constant prices) for the social sector in the case of the states. This chapter looks at the trends in SSEE, considering all the alternative ways and the impact of SSEE on HDI. The result of the study shows that there is a positive relationship between SSEE and HDI. SSEE may lead to increases in gross enrolment ratio (GER) and literacy rate (LR). An increase in GER and LR may help in increasing the HDI.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of public expenditure on economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing countries like India. If poverty and inequality are high, the government may resort to distributive policies at the cost of long-term growth. The distributive policies and poverty alleviation measures fail to achieve success due to lack of good governance, lack of proper targeting and problems in the implementation of such schemes. On the other hand, if the nature of public expenditure is such that it enhances per capita income, it will help reduce poverty.

After analytical digression and construction of hypotheses panel regression has been done using state-level data in the Indian context to empirically verify the above propositions. Both Fixed effects and Random effects models have been used for this purpose.

The results show that in states where ratio of public expenditure on the development of infrastructure such as road, irrigation, power, transport and communication is higher, per capita income is also higher and incidence of poverty is lower indicating that economic growth is important for poverty alleviation and development of infrastructure is necessary for growth.

This study demonstrates how public policy and public finance can be used as instruments for removal of poverty.

The idea of relating health, education and other social sector variables with growth and development, or trying to find any convergence among similar countries with respect to such macroeconomic indicators is the basic idea of this chapter, which explores the concept of enhancing welfare through a subjective route, specifically by way of expenditure in health care. By way of testing σ- and β-convergence of current healthcare expenditure per capita of the BRICS countries for the period 2006–2018, it has been found that these countries catch up with significant convergence. It has also been obtained through panel data analysis that such convergence is significantly explained by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, life expectancy at birth, elderly ratio, CO₂ emissions and prevalence of undernourishment, all of which are in accordance with conventional hypotheses. This chapter claims that, by way of convergence, the BRICS nations may emerge as a new economic power, and expenditure on health care is one of the major areas, among other social sector variables that will play an important role.

The specific objectives of the study are to examine the contribution of center and state governments in social sector development and to demonstrate the strong sense of corporate social responsibility (CSR) models in an Indian perspective.

The study is exploratory in character and falls under the category of “general review” aimed at gaining familiarity and achieving insights into the phenomena i.e. status and direction of CSR in India.

The paper concludes that the social sector remained a neglected area as, despite a rise in their revenue earnings, the states are perennially in financial distress due to a more than proportionate increase in expenditure. The paper also highlights the poor budgetary allocation for education, ineffective doctor‐patient ratio, heavy interest payments/servicing debt and lesser governmental efforts to initiate the CSR as a most effective tool. Further, the paper suggests three prospective CSR models in an Indian perspective.

The present study provides a starting point for further research in the development of strategies to implement CSR models in India.

The paper concludes with a new dimension to CSR that refers to businesspeople focusing on business to community development, socially responsible products and processes and socially responsible employee relations. For researchers interested in the areas of models of CSR, the paper introduces a rich field for future research.

The purpose of this study is to examine the cyclical pattern of social expenditure during 1980-2012 for a set of Asian countries. The extant literature available so far has captured the cyclicality of fiscal policy only for member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and for Latin American countries. Moreover, previous studies have largely ignored Asian countries.

The analysis used panel data from global macro-databases of the International Monetary Fund, Statistics of public expenditure for economic development and Asian Development Bank. The cyclical components of social spending (health, education, and social protection) and GDP were determined by using the Hodrick-Prescott Filter. A positive (negative) correlation indicates procyclical (countercyclical) fiscal policy. In line with the existing literature on fiscal cyclicality (Gavin and Perotti, 1997; Lane, 2003; Frankel et al., 2013) that has examined the behavior of fiscal policy over the business cycle, regression analysis is used to examine the impact of political and institutional factors on the behavior of social spending.

It was found that government social expenditure is procyclical across Asian countries during 1980-2012. However, during the past decade, emerging Asian countries have been able to shift from procyclical to countercyclical social spending. This shows that they had taken several initiatives to boost expenditure in the social sector – be it in social protection, health, or education services. The significant determinant of social cyclicality is the quality of institutions, which could help the government to increase fiscal deficit during recessions and repay the debt during economic booms. However, to some extent, their countercyclical action is restrained by the high accumulated level of public debt.

In the context of the Asian region, it is important to understand the cyclical pattern of social policy for several reasons. It has been said that crises offer an opportunity for countries to rethink their social policy to achieve more sustained and equitable development. By studying the social spending behavior, the authors can see whether Asian countries were able to grab the opportunity for reshaping their social and economic agenda after the Asian financial crisis.

This paper examines the impact of fiscal constraints on education expenditure in Nigeria from 1981 to 2021, using annual time series data.

The study deployed cointegration techniques with structural breaks.

Cointegration was found between education expenditure, debt servicing (a proxy for fiscal constraint) and associated variables. In both the long and short run, debt servicing negatively and significantly impacts education expenditure. While government revenue has a positive and significant impact on education expenditure in the long and short run, political institution has a negative and significant impact in the long run. Political institution is thus critical to education financing in Nigeria. The impact of debt is positive and significant in the short run, but not significant in the long run. There is a unidirectional causality from debt servicing to education expenditure.

Political institutions are critical towards contracting only productive debts and checkmating the adverse political environment through political will that prioritizes education financing.

The study extends the empirical literature on the fiscal constraint-education expenditure first by investigating fiscal constraint-education expenditure nexus given the institutional environment, and second by extending the methodology using cointegration techniques in the midst of structural breaks.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2022-0682.