Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the impact of expenditures on semi-public goods in public expenditures on the human development index. Due to the evolving and changing role of the state in the economic structure, it is worth emphasizing the impact of public expenditures, which are becoming increasingly important, on economic and social indicators. Economic growth, development, human development, fairness in income distribution, and efficiency in resource use are some of these indicators. Public expenditures, which are used as an effective tool to achieve fiscal policy objectives, can provide the benefit of the general public as well as sometimes only private benefit. Because of the benefit they provide according to their characteristics, these expenditures fall under three categories: public, semi-public and private goods. The fact that education and health expenditures, which are defined as semi-public goods, are among the basic indicators used in human development index calculations and that these expenditures have an important place in terms of providing welfare maximization further increases the importance of education and health expenditures, which are semi-public goods among public expenditures. Measuring the possible impact of semii-public goods on human development due to their positive externalities was the main driver for the study. Due to the availability of human development index data for 1990 and after, in this study conducted in Turkey, the human development index and the ratio of public expenditures to national income for semi-public goods were used. The correlation between these variables was investigated using time-series techniques with data from 1990-2019. The long-term correlation between the variables was tested using the Gregory-Hansen cointegration test and a cointegration correlation was identified between them. Long-term coefficients were estimated using the FMOLS method. According to the results, public spending increases the level of human development in the long term. According to the causality test, a one-way causality correlation was identified from public expenditures to the human development index.

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