G. Karras, ON THE OPTIMAL GOVERNMENT SIZE IN EUROPE - THEORY AND EMPIRICAL-EVIDENCE, Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, 65(3), 1997, pp. 280-294
The optimal government size for the representative European country is
estimated by investigating the role of public services in the product
ion process. The empirical results support the following conclusions:
(i) government services are significantly productive; (ii) there is no
evidence that government services (on average) are not optimally prov
ided; (iii) the optimal government size is 16 per cent (+/-3 per cent)
for the average ICP European country; (iv) the marginal productivity
of government services may be negatively related to government size.