The impact of the increase in the number of civil servants on public expenditure in Turkey

The question of the reasons for the increase in the public expenditures made by the government due to the functions of government has long been of importance. It is accepted that increasing public expenditures can be a reason of either exogenous factors such as war or natural disasters as in the case of organic state approach or endogenous factors such as the actors who play role in spending decisions. In the public choice theory, four actors - politicians, voters, interest groups and bureaucrats - are considered to play a role in the process of political decision-making, and the behaviors of each are addressed. In the study, the impact of the increase in the number of civil servants, who are considered as one of these actors, on general public expenditures and various sub-expenditure groups are discussed. Bureau voting model, the number of civil servants belonging to the 1998-2014 period for Turkey, population, public spending (consolidated, current, investment and transfer expenditure) and Gross Domestic Product variables are dealt with bounds testing approach. As a result, it was concluded that the increase in the number of civil servants affected the expenditures in the increase direction as expected; the maximum impact was seen in the investment expenditures and the increase in the number of civil servants was the reason of the increase in public expenditures as a result of Granger causality test.