Abstract

The existing high budget deficit in Tanzanian economy has created an immense concern among economic policy analysts. The study inspects whether budget deficits crowd out or crowd in private investment in Tanzania, using annual data for the period from 1970 to 2012. Using the Johansen cointegration test advocates there is at least one cointegration vector among these variables. Given such condition, the application vector error correction model (VEC) became inevitable as it presents additional and superior information in relation to other data production processes. The results indicate a close long–term connection between private investment, and other variables included in the study. Results suggest that budget deficits considerably crowds out private investment. The study advocates that government should readdress its fiscal policy that would support the private investors. The government should discourage high government expenditures and maintaining a low fiscal deficit also capital market should be used to finance budget deficit.

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