Accounting for large fiscal government size.

This article examines the factors that contribute to the size of governments in different countries. It discusses Wagner's law and the resource curse as explanations for large government size and categorizes countries based on their government size. The article explores the relationship between government size and economic performance, political institutions, and natural resources. It concludes that most countries with large governments can be explained by Wagner's law or the resource curse, while the remaining countries are ruled by autocratic governments with left-wing or incoherent political ideologies. The article also provides a table with characteristics of countries with large governments, but does not offer a roadmap for reducing government size. The author acknowledges uncertainties in reducing government size and provides rough estimates for figures. [Extracted from the article]