A Historical Dataset of Federal Government Spending Changes for Canada

This dataset presents a narrative record of all announced federal government spending changes in Canada between 1949q1 and 2012q1. We use the federal government’s budget documents, mostly the budget speech, to document announced spending measures. Other budget documents that we use include the Economic Statements, Financial Statements, Mini Budgets, Interim Budgets, and Economic and Budget Updates. We document the motivation behind each announced measure. Based on these motivations, we classify spending changes as exogenous or endogenous. Exogenous changes are those that are not motivated by contemporaneous economic conditions of the country. Endogenous changes are those that are taken in response to current economic conditions. We also document the size of a change, whether it was intended to be temporary or permanent, the duration of the measure, and the size of the measure that was to be implemented in the same year as it is announced. This is the first dataset for any country that comprehensively presents all spending changes undertaken by a government.

本数据集呈现了1949年第一季度至2012年第一季度加拿大联邦政府所有宣布的支出变动的历史记录。我们利用联邦政府的预算文件，主要依据预算演说，来记录宣布的支出措施。此外，我们还使用了经济声明、财务报表、小型预算、临时预算以及经济和预算更新等预算文件。对于每一项宣布的措施，我们详细记录其背后的动机。基于这些动机，我们将支出变动分类为外生性或内生性。外生性变动是指不受该国同时期经济条件影响的变动；内生性变动则是指针对当前经济条件采取的措施。此外，我们还记录了变动的大小、是否旨在临时实施或永久实施、措施的实施期限以及与宣布年份相同的年度措施规模。这是有史以来首个全面展示一个国家政府所采取所有支出变动的数据集。