This paper investigates whether government expenditure, especially government consumption, and private consumption are substitutes or complements using Japanese prefectural panel data. To this end, we estimate the intratemporal elasticity of substitution between government and private consumption. The results show that the intratemporal elasticity of substitution is estimated to be positive and significant when the samples are selected in three ways: the latter part of our sample period (1994‐2009), rural areas, and prefectures with high proportions of the elderly.
