Legislative production and public spending in France

François Facchini (1) , Elena Seghezza (2)

1 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne
2 UniGe - Università degli studi di Genova = University of Genoa

The aim of this article is to help explain the history of the public spending-to-GDP ratio in France by examining the production of laws and regulations. It empirically finds a positive and significant relationship between the number of pages in the Official Gazette of the French Republic and the development of the public expenditure-to-GDP ratio. We rely on the number of pages in the Official Gazette as a proxy for the cost of implementing laws and regulations. If unchecked, a proliferation of laws and regulations expands public spending. Over the period 1905–2015, a 10% increase in pages caused a 1.14% increase in the public expenditure-to-GDP ratio.

Mots clés: Public spending; Law; “Self-reinforcing” process

Mots clés: Dépenses publiques; Histoire économique -- France; Inflation législative

Domaines: Economies et finances

François Facchini, Elena Seghezza. Legislative production and public spending in France. Public Choice, 2021, 189, pp.71-91. ⟨10.1007/s11127-020-00858-7⟩. ⟨hal-03051879⟩