Thrift culture and the size of government

Abstract

We consider the role of culture in determining the size of government. To that purpose, we develop three theoretical hypotheses on the relationship between “thrift” (our proxy of culture) and government consumption. We then test these hypotheses using panel data for 62 countries. Our main finding is that government consumption is higher in thriftier countries. The positive effect of thrift on government consumption weakens in more corrupt or more democratic societies.