Governance, public spending, and development: Assessing Asian countries’ performance

Abstract

This comprehensive study aims to investigate the role that governance and public spending have played on selected modern and sustainable development indicators. In order to reach the conclusion, it is hypothesized that governance, public spending and other socio-economic factors would have some effects on selected development indicators. In light of such assumptions, a number of theories relating to sustainable development, governance and public spending are then explored and examined. This study differs from several other literatures in the field of development indicators as here, World Development Indicators (WDIs) are used to represent development, owing to their comprehensive focus that are highly related to the core concept of development. Cross-sectional multiple regression is used to analyze the average data of the period between 2013 and2015. The results reveal that governance variables, health expenditure, and GDP per capita have the most positive impact on WDIs. This implies that the government should first be effective and trustworthy, and that it should be equipped with good governance. In addition, good and effective health expenditure must be ensured, as well as economic growth, in order to achieve better development outcomes.