Expenditure on social services and economic growth: An analysis for Punjab economy Dr. Kaur Supreet Assistant professor, Pg Department of Economics, Khalsa College, Amritsar. Email id: supreetkaursoniya@gmail.com JEL Classification: C13, H50; O30 Online published on 8 May, 2019. Abstract The present paper endeavours to examine the growth and structural changes in government expenditure on various social services and also its impact on economic growth in Punjab state for the period 1990–91 to 2017–18. For this purpose, a variety of analytical techniques viz., average annual compound growth rates, relative shares of the components, tests of stationarity, log-linear multiple regression analysis were applied. Results from the analysis revealed that, of the various components of government expenditure on social services, the relative share of expenditure on education, sports and art & culture has remained highest throughout the study span, while that of labour welfare has remained the lowest, which calls for the need to pay more attention towards this significant component of social sector. Moreover, the relative share of government expenditure on medical and public health has declined during postliberalization period, which may not be considered as a conducive sign for the development of an economy. Further, the results of regression analysis indicated that the expenditure on education happened to be the most important variable, which entails that government spending on education, sports and art & culture should be given much emphasis for promoting economic growth in Punjab state. On the other hand, the government expenditure on medical & public Health, water supply & sanitation, labour and labour welfare appear to be negatively related to economic growth, which may be due to inefficiencies involved in incurring such kind of expenditure. Thus, there is need to reallocate and prioritize the activities so that efficiency can be increased and sustainable economic growth can be attained. Top Keywords Government Expenditure, Domestic Product, Regression Analysis, Structural Changes, Stationarity. Top |