Public expenditure and economic growth in WAEMU countries

The objective of this study is to assess the effect of public expenditure on economic growth in WAEMU countries. Using a sample of seven (07) countries, we estimate the model of the effect of public spending on economic growth using the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) estimator over the period 1990-2020. Our results show that total public spending positively and significantly influences economic growth in WAEMU countries. A disaggregation of total public expenditure into consumption expenditure, investment expenditure and recurrent expenditure was carried out; the results reveal that consumption and investment expenditure significantly and positively influence economic growth in WAEMU countries while recurrent expenditure has a significantly negative effect on economic growth in WAEMU countries.