The Impact of Government Expenditure on the Development of the Agricultural Sector in Syria

Abstract

This study aims to examine the impact of government agricultural expenditure on the development of the agricultural sector in Syria during the period (2000_2019). The research investigates the relationship between government spending and its components, and their effect on both agricultural production and agricultural investment. To achieve this objective, the analytical descriptive method was adopted to analyze the theoretical framework, while the applied analytical approach was employed to estimate the long-run and short-run relationships using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag) ARDL) model, based on annual data obtained from the Central Bureau of Statistics. The empirical results revealed a long-run equilibrium relationship between government expenditure and both agricultural production and agricultural investment, with a statistically significant effect at the 0.05 level. The findings indicated that government spending has a positive and clear impact on agricultural output and investment. The error correction model showed that the agricultural sector adjusts quickly to restore equilibrium, with a speed of adjustment estimated at 1.24 for agricultural output and 1.34 for agricultural investment.The statistical diagnostic tests confirmed the absence of econometric problems such as autocorrelation and multicollinearity, which validates the reliability and robustness of the model .