Abstract:
This paper provides a theoretical and empirical investigation of the simultaneous effects of taxes and government
spending on long-run economic growth in an endogenous growth framework. It is argued that including both taxes
and government spending in the model eliminates the omitted variables bias associated with the government budget
constraint. A two-sector model is considered: one sector produces physical output and the other produces human
capital. Government expenditure is broken into several categories, and several types of taxes are included. One kind
of government capital (roads) enters in the physical output sector and another kind (schools) enters in the human
capital accumulation sector. In addition, government operating expenditures for schools enters in the human capital
accumulation sector. Personal income, corporate income, property, sales and gasoline taxes are included. The
property tax is especially interesting because it is a major source of revenue for local government. The theoretical
model is estimated using annual panel data of North Carolina counties. This study finds that state-level fiscal
policies affect economic growth but county-level fiscal policies do not.