Size of Government, Effectiveness and Socioeconomic Development: A Comparative Analysis of ASEAN Countries

ABSTRACT This integrative study aims to answer the important question whether size of government together with government effectiveness have a positive relationship with selected socioeconomic development in ASEAN countries from 2000 to 2015. Public expenditure is used to represent the size of government and it has been and is still a common tool for many governments used to serve their goals in socioeconomic development, service provision, raising living standards, and many other objectives. Literature has linked public expenditure to positive outcomes of long-term economic growth and other dimensions of development. However, there can be certain factors affecting efficacy in public expenditure and socioeconomic development, especially institutional capacity. Therefore, from the public administration aspect, government effectiveness was incorporated to assess the relationship with socioeconomic development. This study argues that ASEAN countries which limited the growth of public expenditure perform as well as those with relatively big government.