Fiscal policy and growth revisited: the case of the Spanish regions

Abstract

This paper presents an assessment of the effects of fiscal policy on economic growth. Starting from a theoretical model in which only those fiscal policy instruments presumed to strictly influence the production process (i. e., public capital and transfers) are incorporated into the production function, we provide an empirical application for the case of the Spanish regions during the period 1967-1991. The results confirm the positive effect of public investment on growth, together with a positive effect of transfers but only for poorer regions.