Disaggregated government expenditure and economic growth in Ghana

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Date

2019-06

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Ghana Social Science Journal

Abstract

The study examined the growth impact of government consumption, interest and transfer payments in Ghana. Using a quarterly time series data from 1984 to 2015 with maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), the results revealed that government interest payments and consumption expenditure negatively impact economic growth in both long run and short run. However, government transfers indicated a positive significant impact on growth of output. The results further revealed a bi-directional causality between government interest payment and economic growth while unidirectional causalities running from government consumption expenditure and transfer payment to economic growth were also established. The study recommends that the Ministry of Finance should take measures to check the share and growth of interest payments and consumption expenditure in government total expenditure; and government through the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme should increase and regularize its transfer payments in order to elevate the vulnerable groups from extreme poverty and stimulate aggregate demand and output.

Description

Ghana Social Science Journal, 16(1), 157

Keywords

Consumption expenditure, transfer payment, interest payment, Economic growth

Citation