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State expenditure and fiscal illusion in Australia: A test of the revenue complexity, revenue elasticity and flypaper hypotheses

Dollery, Brian E. and Worthington, Andrew C. (1995) State expenditure and fiscal illusion in Australia: A test of the revenue complexity, revenue elasticity and flypaper hypotheses . Economic Analysis and Policy 25(2):pp. 125-140.

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Abstract

Despite the federal structure of its constitution, no empirical study of fiscal illusion at the level of state expenditure has yet been undertaken in Australia. This paper seeks to go at least some way towards remedying the omission by subjecting the revenue-complexity, revenue-elasticity and flypaper hypotheses to pooled time-series, cross-sectional analysis of seven Australian states and territories for the period 1982 to 1992. The results obtained indicate that some support is provided for the revenue-complexity hypothesis, strong evidence exists for the flypaper effect, and virtually no empirical backing was found for the revenue-elasticity hypothesis. These results correspond with earlier work elsewhere on fiscal illusion at the level of the state.

Item Type:Journal Article
Status:Published
Keywords:Fiscal illusion; revenue-complexity; revenue-elasticity; flypaper effect; public choice
Subjects:360000 Policy and Political Science > 360100 Political Science > 360103 Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations
340000 Economics > 340200 Applied Economics > 340209 Public Sector Economics
360000 Policy and Political Science > 360200 Policy and Administration > 360201 Public Policy
ID Code:2793
Deposited By:Worthington, Andrew
Deposited On:05 December 2005
Alternative Locations:http://www.ecosoc.org.au/qld/eap/eap.htm
Copyright Owner:Copyright 1995 The Economics Society of Australia