Income Distribution

Federal, State, and Local Governments: Evaluating their Separate Roles in US Growth

JEL codes: 
E60, E62, E64, E69, H50, H70, O11, O18, O40, O43, O47, O50, O51, R11
Version Date: 
Dec 2008
Author/s: 
Abstract: 

We use US county level data (3,058 observations) from 1970 to 1998 to explore the relationship between economic growth and the extent of government employment at three levels: federal, state and local. We find that increases in federal, state and local government employments are all negatively associated with economic growth.

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