Investigating the Relationship between Fiscal Illusion and Economic Growth in Iran During 1978-2014

Economic growth is considered as one of the most important goals of the economy and has an undeniable effect on improving the welfare of the community. Knowing the factors affecting economic growth has always been an issue for economists. Several factors such as promoting labor force productivity, capital accumulation, government's expenditures, technological progress, as well as fiscal illusions affect economic growth. Fiscal illusion is the source of distrust between the government and the people, which influences the economic growth through the channel of state budget and tax revenues. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between fiscal illusions and economic growth in Iran during the period of 1978-2014. The study consists of two steps: firstly, the fiscal illusions in the context of the model of LISRE software (Linear Structural Relationships) are determined and measured by the data given from the Central Bank and the Statistics Center of Iran during the years of 1978-2014. The results indicate that the most important determinant of the size of fiscal illusions in Iran is the tax burden that policy makers try to conceal by creating government debt illusions and illusions of private sector expenditures on public debt levels. In the second step, after estimating the fiscal illusion, its relationship with economic growth has been investigated using the ARDL model. The findings of the test show that fiscal illusions have a negative and significant effect on the economic growth in Iran in both short and long terms.