Fiscal expenditures, revenues and labour productivity in South Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic emerged at a time when the South African economy was already battling to recover from the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007–09 which led the country to experience a decade-old slowdown in labour productivity. Our study investigates the role which government plays...

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Main Authors: Andrew Phiri, Chuma Mbaleki
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2022-12-01
Series:Cogent Economics & Finance
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23322039.2022.2062912
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author Andrew Phiri
Chuma Mbaleki
author_facet Andrew Phiri
Chuma Mbaleki
author_sort Andrew Phiri
collection DOAJ
description The COVID-19 pandemic emerged at a time when the South African economy was already battling to recover from the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007–09 which led the country to experience a decade-old slowdown in labour productivity. Our study investigates the role which government plays in influencing labour productivity by estimating a log-linearized growth model augmented with a fiscal sector using the autoregressive distributive lag model applied to annual data of 1990–2020. We further disaggregate the composition of government size into seven expenditure items and six revenue items, and find i) education, health, recreation and public safety to be expenditure items most beneficial to short-run and long-run labour productivity ii) income taxes and VAT to be revenue items most beneficial to long-run productivity and yet most taxes have adverse short-run effects. The policy implications of the study are discussed.
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spelling doaj-art-b078e47c91c84b98aa03b468808ea7202025-08-20T02:01:24ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Economics & Finance2332-20392022-12-0110110.1080/23322039.2022.2062912Fiscal expenditures, revenues and labour productivity in South AfricaAndrew Phiri0Chuma Mbaleki1Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economic Studies, Nelson Mandela University, 6031 Port Elizabeth, South AfricaSchool of Business, Baldwin Wallace University, United StatesThe COVID-19 pandemic emerged at a time when the South African economy was already battling to recover from the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007–09 which led the country to experience a decade-old slowdown in labour productivity. Our study investigates the role which government plays in influencing labour productivity by estimating a log-linearized growth model augmented with a fiscal sector using the autoregressive distributive lag model applied to annual data of 1990–2020. We further disaggregate the composition of government size into seven expenditure items and six revenue items, and find i) education, health, recreation and public safety to be expenditure items most beneficial to short-run and long-run labour productivity ii) income taxes and VAT to be revenue items most beneficial to long-run productivity and yet most taxes have adverse short-run effects. The policy implications of the study are discussed.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23322039.2022.2062912public expenditurefiscal revenueslabour productivityARDLSouth Africa
spellingShingle Andrew Phiri
Chuma Mbaleki
Fiscal expenditures, revenues and labour productivity in South Africa
Cogent Economics & Finance
public expenditure
fiscal revenues
labour productivity
ARDL
South Africa
title Fiscal expenditures, revenues and labour productivity in South Africa
title_full Fiscal expenditures, revenues and labour productivity in South Africa
title_fullStr Fiscal expenditures, revenues and labour productivity in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Fiscal expenditures, revenues and labour productivity in South Africa
title_short Fiscal expenditures, revenues and labour productivity in South Africa
title_sort fiscal expenditures revenues and labour productivity in south africa
topic public expenditure
fiscal revenues
labour productivity
ARDL
South Africa
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23322039.2022.2062912
work_keys_str_mv AT andrewphiri fiscalexpendituresrevenuesandlabourproductivityinsouthafrica
AT chumambaleki fiscalexpendituresrevenuesandlabourproductivityinsouthafrica