<p>Because comparing spending as a size of a total economy is meaningful for making international comparisons of how much countries spend on something.</p>
<p>Comparing spending as a total size of government budget obfuscates reality because some countries might just prefer having larger governments but that does not mean that the country actually devotes more resources to some activity.</p>
<p>Hence comparing spending on something as a size of government budget would not allow you to do meaningful international comparisons without first some other adjustments whether making it relative to country size does allow you to make meaningful comparisons.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-09T12:50:06.900Z
Why wouldn't it be meaningful though ?  I can say my country spent 10 % of its budget on healthcare, and your country spent 20 % of your country's budget on Healthcare. So your country spends more on healthcare relative to mine as a percentage of total government spending. And that your country gives more importance to healthcare and spends the other 80 % of its budget on other things.
Aman
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-09T13:13:38.193Z
@Aman not for international comparisons. As mentioned in my answer some countries have larger government some smaller governments. If you have two identical country (say GDP in both countries is 100), they both spend 20 on healthcare then HS/GDP will be exactly equal for both countries, which is exactly what good international measure should tell you. Now suppose we take your idea, again we have 2 identical countries both have 100 GDP and spend 20 on healthcare, but one country has larger government G in the first country is 50 and in second country 25. Using your measure you would conclude
1muflon1
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-09T13:16:57.577Z
that first country is devoting less of its resources to healthcare spending which is simply prima facie completely absurd since both countries devote the same proportion of resources to healthcare, one simply has preference for larger government. Consequently such measure does not allow you to make meaningful international comparison of healthcare spending because you no longer look just at healthcare spending but you confound it by preference for government size. That would be like trying to measure how fat people and instead of using standardizing weight by heigh (since of course larger
1muflon1
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-09T13:17:54.753Z
person will have more weight) you will standardize it by their IQ or something else like that. It would simply no longer allow you to make meaningful interpersonal comparison of how fat people are.
1muflon1
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-10T18:00:45.383Z
@user253751 to see differences in government spending between countries for example. A proportion of a country budget would not allow you to tell that one government devotes more resources to x. A proportion of GDP would let you to do that. Again its equivalent to dividing weight by height so you take into account of different sizes of people when comparing how fat people are.
1muflon1
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-09T12:23:00.910Z
2022-10-09T12:23:00.910Z
1muflon1
<p><strong>Why is ''XYZ Spending as a Percentage of GDP''  given more importance than XYZ spending as a percentage of the Total Government Expenditure/Budget.</strong></p>
<p>For example, i was looking at certain countries spending on R&amp;D and it was given as a percentage of their GDP. Why should it be shown as a percentage of GDP.</p>
<p>2 Nations might have the Same GDP but the Government Budget Expenditure and Revenue/Receipts may differ a lot.</p>

<gdp><government-spending>
''Spending as a Percentage of GDP''
Aman
# ''Spending as a Percentage of GDP''

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-10-09)

**Why is ''XYZ Spending as a Percentage of GDP'' given more importance than XYZ spending as a percentage of the Total Government Expenditure/Budget.**

For example, i was looking at certain countries spending on R&D and it was given as a percentage of their GDP. Why should it be shown as a percentage of GDP.

2 Nations might have the Same GDP but the Government Budget Expenditure and Revenue/Receipts may differ a lot.

**Tags:** gdp, government-spending


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-10-09. Score: 1

Because comparing spending as a size of a total economy is meaningful for making international comparisons of how much countries spend on something.

Comparing spending as a total size of government budget obfuscates reality because some countries might just prefer having larger governments but that does not mean that the country actually devotes more resources to some activity.

Hence comparing spending on something as a size of government budget would not allow you to do meaningful international comparisons without first some other adjustments whether making it relative to country size does allow you to make meaningful comparisons.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Why wouldn't it be meaningful though ?  I can say my country spent 10 % of its budget on healthcare, and your country spent 20 % of your country's budget on Healthcare. So your country spends more on healthcare relative to mine as a percentage of total government spending. And that your country gives more importance to healthcare and spends the other 80 % of its budget on other things.  
> **username_1**: @username_0 not for international comparisons. As mentioned in my answer some countries have larger government some smaller governments. If you have two identical country (say GDP in both countries is 100), they both spend 20 on healthcare then HS/GDP will be exactly equal for both countries, which is exactly what good international measure should tell you. Now suppose we take your idea, again we have 2 identical countries both have 100 GDP and spend 20 on healthcare, but one country has larger government G in the first country is 50 and in second country 25. Using your measure you would conclude  
> **username_1**: that first country is devoting less of its resources to healthcare spending which is simply prima facie completely absurd since both countries devote the same proportion of resources to healthcare, one simply has preference for larger government. Consequently such measure does not allow you to make meaningful international comparison of healthcare spending because you no longer look just at healthcare spending but you confound it by preference for government size. That would be like trying to measure how fat people and instead of using standardizing weight by heigh (since of course larger  
> **username_1**: person will have more weight) you will standardize it by their IQ or something else like that. It would simply no longer allow you to make meaningful interpersonal comparison of how fat people are.  
> **username_1**: @user253751 to see differences in government spending between countries for example. A proportion of a country budget would not allow you to tell that one government devotes more resources to x. A proportion of GDP would let you to do that. Again its equivalent to dividing weight by height so you take into account of different sizes of people when comparing how fat people are.  

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