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HAS EUROPEAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION AFFECTED THE FUNCTIONAL COMPOSITION OF GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES?
Author(s) -
SANZ ISMAEL,
VELÁZQUEZ FRANCISCO J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1093/cep/byj022
Subject(s) - harmonization , convergence (economics) , index (typography) , economics , globalization , government (linguistics) , member states , composition (language) , international economics , economic integration , international trade , economic system , public economics , european union , macroeconomics , market economy , linguistics , philosophy , physics , world wide web , computer science , acoustics
Globalization and growth‐maximizing governments may cause countries to converge toward a similar composition of government expenditures. These convergent forces may be even more intensive in the case of EU member states engaged in the European integration process. The results obtained, through calculation of a constructed dissimilarity index and by adapting the usual indicators of convergence (β, σ, and γ), reveal that there has been a harmonization process. In addition, this approximation of the structures of government expenditures has been greater in the EU than in the non‐EU countries of the OECD. Nevertheless, EU member states are converging toward a different steady‐state composition of government expenditures. (JEL H11, H50, H60 )