The Growth of Government in Canada: A 21st Century Perspective

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Paper Citation

Milligan, Kevin (2015), “The Growth of Government in Canada: A 21st Century Perspective”, Canadian Tax Journal Vol. 63(3), 739-50.

Paper Abstract

Since the fall of 2014 the Canadian Tax Journal has included a “Finances of the Nation” feature, replacing the annual monograph formerly published by the Canadian Tax Foundation under the same name. The feature presents a series of articles on topical matters related to taxation and public expenditures in Canada. Previous articles, published in issue no. 3, 2014 and issue no. 1, 2015, provided surveys of the annual provincial and territorial budgets for 2014 and 2015, respectively. The article included in this issue focuses on the growth of government. It begins by outlining several theories with respect to the growth of government, highlights a number of measurement concerns, and then presents an empirical analysis of trends in the growth of government in Canada, using available data from 1926 to 2014 and noting how trends in the data fit the different theories.