Publisher:
Lund University, School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Lund
Abstract:
This paper analyses the relation between private and government consumption in 23 OECD countries between 1970 and 2001. In particular it addresses the issue of whether government consumption is a substitute for or a complement to private consumption. The empirical analysis is made with panel cointegration analysis, using the newly developed CUSUM cointegration test by \cite{westerlund05}. The method is extended by using a bootstrap technique to control for cross-sectional dependence. The results show that government consumption is a complement to private consumption for most of the countries and a substitute for only a few of the countries.