Size of Government and Economic Performance: What Does the Evidence Say?
"Lee finds that there is no basic correlation between indicators of economic performance (such as levels of GDP or GDP growth rates) and measures of government size (such as tax revenues as a share of GDP). A number of countries with the same income per person as Canada have larger government sectors, and some have smaller governments.
“The enemies of “big government” do so on ideological grounds, often backed by wealthy individuals who would stand to gain a lot by shrinking government. Economically, the key questions seem to be not how much tax is taken as a percent of GDP, but what tax mix is used, and what the money is spent on.”
You silly people with you “economic theories”, a simple arbitrary, statistically insignificant, epistemologically flawed regression tells you much more!