Revenue and Expenditure Nexus: A Case Study of ECOWAS

What is it about?

This paper aims to assess the relationship among fiscal variables (government revenue and expenditure) in Sub-Saharan African countries. Using yearly data for the period between 1980 and 2011 in fifteen ECOWAS countries, a weak long-run relationship between government expenditure and revenue emerge, but only in the case of WAMZ countries. Granger causality analysis show mixed results for WAEMU countries, while for four out of six WAMZ countries (Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone) the “tax-and-spend” hypothesis holds, since government revenue would drive the expenditure. Keywords: ECOWAS; Sub-Saharan Africa; economic growth; government expenditure; government revenue; panel

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