Отраслевая структура бюрократии и экономический рост

The paper continues the research tradition of the public sector of economics from a New Public Management perspective. We examine data on all federal executive bodies in the Russian Federation over approximately 30 years, including 1994, 1998, 2004, 2014–2019, and 2023. We propose an assessing model for the economic effects of bureaucracy. Each agency was correlated with certain field of economic activity, allowing us to link agency with sphere its governing. The relationship between bureaucracy and economic growth assessed through changes in the structure of value added by economic sector. The models considered both agency performance indicators (the number and salaries of civil servants, the number of functions) and control variables influencing the independent variable (the number and average salary of employees in economic sectors). Fixed time effects for year, type, subordination, and sector of agencies were also taken into account. The hypothesis that civil servant salaries are positively correlated with the dynamics of gross value added was confirmed. The growth of functions and the number of civil servants is positively correlated with their salaries. In turn, civil servant salaries are positively correlated with wage levels in economy, and the growth of bureaucracy is virtually unaccompanied by displacement of employment from the private sector. The findings clarify our understanding of the economic role of bureaucracy and adapt the hypotheses of international studies to Russian conditions. The results may be of interest to both economic scholars and public administration practitioners.