The impact of government expenditure on growth: Empirical evidence from a heterogeneous panel

This paper investigates the impact of government expenditure on growth, in a heterogeneous panel for 15 developing countries. Using GMM techniques, we show that countries with substantial government expenditure have strong growth effects, which vary considerably across the nations

Quantum correction to thermodynamical entropy of black hole

The entropy of a black hole can differ from a quarter of the area of the horizon because of quantum corrections. The correction is related to the contribution to the Euclidean functional integral from quantum fluctuations but is not simply equal to the correction to the effective action. A (2+1) dimensional rotating black hole is explicitly considered.Comment: REVTeX, 7 page

Reply to comment by Zaslavskii on extremal black hole action

It is shown that Zaslavskii's misunderstanding of our published proof of the irrelevance of all extremal black hole configurations (whether with equal charge and mass or not) rests on his refusal to see the essential difference between the correct inequality governing extremal and non-extremal actions and his incorrect version.Comment: 1 page, REVTeX, adapted from reply in PRL 80, 3413 (1998

On the composition of government spending, optimal fiscal policy, and endogenous growth: Theory and evidence

In an endogenous growth model with two public services with differing productivities, this paper analytically characterises optimal fiscal policy for a decentralised economy, whereby the optimal values of the growth rate, tax rate and expenditure shares on the two public goods are linked directly to their productivity parameters. Using panel data for 15 developing countries over 28 years, we show using GMM techniques, that current (capital) spending has positive (negative) and significant effects on the growth rate, contrary to commonly held views. Our theoretical results extend, and our empirical results modify those obtained by Devarajan et al. (1996)

Is democracy beneficial for growth in countries with low ethnic diversity?

We study the impact of democracy on economic growth for a panel of the most and least ethnically diverse nations as documented by Easterly and Levine (1997). Using a GMM system to capture endogeneity and simultaneity, we find that democracy exerts a direct positive impact on growth, in addition to ameliorating the adverse effects of ethnic diversity on growth, unlike some of the results of the previous empirical literature