Productividad y tamaño óptimo de gobierno: El caso de los gobiernos estatales en México.

Abstract

This paper estimates the optimal government size for the state governments in Mexico, investigating the role of public services in the production process. It is assumed that government services are optimally provided when their marginal product equals unity (the "Barro rule"). The empirical results suggest (1) government services are significantly productive; (2) they are overprovided in all state governments in Mexico; (3) the optimal government size for the average state of the country is 3.1 % (± 2.3 %), whereas for the average state of the north and south is 8.3 % and 2.5 %, respectively; finally it was found a negative relation between the government size and the productivity of the southern governments, whereas in the others states there was no evidence to approve the above mentioned relation.optimal government size, government expenditure productivity, Intergovernmental Relations