Determinants of Government’s Budget Deficit in Iran: 1989-2015

The public budget is an official manuscript forecasting the economy for a short period (one year), and its proper execution can be viewed as an index of economic success for the government. The governments are generally unable to execute the balanced budget and in order to finance current and infrastructure expenditure, they will face budget deficit. The purpose of this research is to explore the determinants of budget deficit during the five economic plans (1989-2015). Accordingly, using Johansen-Juselius Co-integration and ARDL approach, the effects of tax incomes, oil incomes, government expenditure, the rate of economic growth and the rate of inflation on the budget deficit are estimated. The results show that the budget deficit has a significant and negative relationship with tax incomes, oil incomes and economic growth rate; whereas it has a significant and positive relationship with government expenditures and the inflation rate. Moreover, oil revenues have the largest impact on the public budget deficit, while the economic growth rate has the least impact.