우리나라 公共部門 雇傭의 膨脹과 와그너法則(Wagner’s Law)

Expansion of Korean Government Sector and Wagner’s Law: A Reexamination Using Employment Data

In most public finance liteature on empirical test of Wagner’s Law, government expenditure variable has largely been used as a measure of government size. This variable, however, contains some disadvantages as follows. First, which government expenditure variable should be used for testing of Wagner’s Law?; government consumption expenditure total expenditure(including capital expenditure and transfers), total expenditure excluding transfers, etc. Data of capital expenditure are unavailable in many countries. Second, in which terms should the expenditure be measured?; nominal or real. Employment variable, on the other hand, could circumvent these problems. In reality, moreover, government sector is generally more labor-intensive. In this context, the employment variable could be a better yardstick. This study, using employment data for the 1960s-1990s period shows that Wagner’s Law is still applicable to Korea. It colud lend an impetus to further investigations on Wager’s Law, using the employment data against other countries.