Government Spending and Private Activity
In December, I released a study that showed raising taxes to cover the budget shortfall at the Department of Health and Human Services would cost private sector jobs–or an estimated 6,463 jobs. Of course, the so-called “Maine Center for Economic Policy” disputed the obvious crowding-out of the private sector by public sector spending.
So, when I received this study in my inbox from the National Bureau of Economic Research I knew the MECEP folks would be thrilled with their conclusions. The study is titled “Government Spending and Private Activity.” From the abstract:
This paper asks whether increases in government spending stimulate private activity. The first part of the paper studies private spending. Using a variety of identification methods and samples, I find that in most cases private spending falls significantly in response to an increase in government spending. These results imply that the average GDP multiplier lies below unity. In order to determine whether concurrent increases in tax rates dampen the spending multiplier, I use two different methods to adjust for tax effects. Neither method suggests significant effects of current tax rate changes on the spending multiplier. In the second part of the paper, I explore the effects of government spending on labor markets. I find that increases in government spending lower unemployment. Most specifications and samples imply, however, that virtually all of the effect is through an increase in government employment, not private employment. I thus conclude that on balance government spending does not appear to stimulate private activity.
In a nutshell, government spending crowds-out private sector spending and all you end up with is a composition shift away from the private sector and toward the public sector. This is what I’ve been showing for years with the chart below showing Maine’s private sector share of personal income on a perpetual downward trend.
Anonymous
Posted on Feb 11, 2012
Can anyone tell me where to find archives of detailed costs of studies funded by The National Institute of Health? They used to have a spreadsheet downloadable from their website (for the most recent past fiscal year), and now I see they have removed that from the site. Any info will be appreciated. pierre
Michale perker
Posted on Sep 25, 2013
government should emphasis more on the public Tax Deed than this kinds of activities.thanks for the post.keep it up.