Social Expenditures as a Political Cue Ball? OECD Countries under Examination

Potrafke, Niklas (2007): Social Expenditures as a Political Cue Ball? OECD Countries under Examination. Discussion papers / Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung,

Abstract

This paper examines how policy affects social expenditures. Analyzing an OECD panel from 1980 to 2003, five political variables are tested: Election- and pre-election years, the ideological party composition of the governments, the number of coalition partners and the fact, if the ruling government has a majority in parliament or not (minority government). I find that neither of these variables have an impact on social expenditures using different model set-ups. The influence of national governments seems to be limited by the globalization, which indeed impairs social expenditures.

• Item Type: Paper
• Faculties: Economics; Economics > Chairs > CESifo-Professorship for Public Finance
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• Language: English