Government Development Expenditure and Its Economic Impact: Insights from ASEAN Countries

This study employs a quantitative approach to examine the impact of government development expenditure on economic growth in ASEAN countries. Utilizing panel data analysis techniques, the study analyzes annual secondary data from ten ASEAN nations spanning the period from 2000 to 2022. The panel autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) approach is applied to identify long-term cointegrating relationships between the variables. The findings reveal that government development expenditure has a significant and positive long-term effect on economic growth, indicating that investments in development projects and infrastructure are crucial drivers of economic growth in the ASEAN region. However, in the short term, government development spending has a negative impact, likely due to temporal lags in realizing the benefits of such expenditures. The study concludes with policy recommendations aimed at increasing long-term government development expenditure, promoting sustainable development projects, investing in human capital, and fostering innovation and productivity, all of which can help ASEAN countries achieve sustained economic growth and development.