Determinants of public spending at the subnational level: a comparison of polish and spanish local governments

• Autor(a) principal: Balmas, Agata Dobrosława
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/11228
• topic: Political business cycles; Decentralization; Fiscal autonomy; Public expenditure; Ciclos político-económicos; Descentralização; Autonomia fiscal; Despesa pública

This study provides a unique comparison between Polish and Spanish local governments with respect to the impact of various political factors on the size and composition of public expenditure. In particular, it aims at verifying the existence of political business cycles as well as partisan effects in the analyzed states at the subnational level. Additionally, the role of fiscal autonomy in shaping the spending decisions and its effect on the magnitude of opportunistic behavior of mayors are also investigated. For the purpose of an empirical research, panel data analysis is applied and a set of equations is estimated separately for each of the countries. Apart from examining total expenses, the level of expenditure on public goods perceived as potentially highly visible to the voters is also considered. The results confirm the hypothesis of an increased spending, both in the aggregate terms and in particular categories, during the pre-election periods. Also, in Poland and Spain higher degree of fiscal authority granted to lower tiers of public administration corresponds to a decrease in the size of public sector. Finally, an evidence of an intensified opportunistic behavior of politicians in the light of greater fiscal autonomy is found.