Effect of Changes in Age Structure of the Population on Government Consumption Expenditure: An Approach of Mixed Frequency Data Sampling (MIDAS)

Population age structure is a main factor affecting government consumption expenditure. This paper examines the effects of changes in population age structure on government consumption expenditure by using a Mixed Frequency Data Sampling (MIDAS) approach. The estimation results indicate that population age structure are of positive and significant effects on government consumption expenditure. In addition, government consumption expenditure is forecasted for 2014. To assess the predictive power of the model, the actual data in 2014 was not used. The expenditure forecasted by the model is 1437079 billion Rials, and corresponding real value is 1438316 billion Rials. This indicates the goodness of fit of model.