Representative Budgeting: Women Mayors and the Composition of Spending in Local Governments

One potential consequence of increasing women’s numeric representation is that women elected officials will behave differently than their men counterparts and improve women’s substantive representation. This study examines whether electing women to local offices changes how local government expenditures are allocated in ways that benefit women. Using compositional expenditure data from more than 5,400 Brazilian municipalities over eight years, we find significant differences in the ways men and women mayors allocate government expenditures. Our findings indicate that women mayors spend more on traditionally feminine issues, and less on traditionally masculine issues, relative to men mayors. In regard to specific policy areas, we find that women spend more on women’s issues, including education, health care, and social assistance, and less on masculine issues, including transportation and urban development, relative to men mayors. We further find that women’s legislative representation significantly influences the allocation of expenditures as a larger percentage of women councilors increases spending on traditionally feminine issues, as well as education, health care, and social assistance, relative to other policy issues. These findings indicate that women local elected officials improve women’s substantive representation by allocating a larger percentage of expenditures to issues that have historically and continue to concern women in Brazil.

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THE EFFECT OF REVENUE SHARES ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING: EVIDENCE FROM PHILIPPINE PROVINCES

The Singapore Economic Review ◽

10.1142/s0217590819500206 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-35

Author(s):

TRISTAN CANARE

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Government Spending ◽

Local Governments ◽

Developing Economies ◽

The Philippines ◽

Government Expenditures ◽

Empirical Literature ◽

Marginal Effect ◽

Fiscal Transfer ◽

Local Government Expenditures

Intergovernmental fiscal transfer (IFT) is one of the several sources of funds of sub-national governments. There are two general types of IFT — conditional and unconditional. In many developing economies including the Philippines, the usual existing IFT is a form of unconditional fiscal transfer called revenue shares. In the Philippines, this revenue-sharing scheme is called the internal revenue allotment (IRA). Empirical literature says that unconditional IFTs are the type of fiscal transfers with the least effect on local government spending. The literature posits that the reason for this is that local governments use these transfers to substitute for own-sourced revenues such as local taxes. This explanation was formalized through a framework presented in this paper. Using panel data from Philippine provinces for the years 2001 to 2015, this paper attempted to determine the effect of revenue shares, in the form of IRA, on local government expenditures. Using different econometric methodologies, this paper arrived at several conclusions. First, IRA has a strong positive effect on total local government spending with a marginal effect slightly greater than one — much higher than what comparable studies found using data from other countries. Secondly, the effect of IRA on local government expenditures is even stronger for provinces with relatively greater ability to generate its own funds. Next, IRA and other externally sourced revenues have much stronger marginal effects on local government spending than do own-sourced revenues. Finally, IRA has widely varying effects on different components of local government expenditures.

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Assessment of Financial Capabilities of Local Governments in EU Countries for the Development of Local Public Services

Lex localis - Journal of Local Self-Government ◽

10.4335/14.3.379-397(2016) ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 379-397 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Martina Halásková ◽

Renata Halásková

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Local Governments ◽

Public Services ◽

Social Protection ◽

Government Expenditure ◽

Government Expenditures ◽

Public Expenditures ◽

Local Public Services ◽

Local Government Expenditure ◽

Local Government Expenditures

Local financing in advanced countries enables local governments to assess real local priorities as well as limitations. The present paper deals with financial capabilities of local governments for the development of public services, local government expenditure and fiscal expenditure decentralization in the EU28. By use of cluster analysis, local public expenditures are assessed by selected COFOG functions, as % of total local government expenditures in years 2010-2013. The results proved the largest differences in the set of countries in local government expenditures on social protection and the smallest differences in local expenditures on recreation and cultures, housing and community amenities.

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Fiscal Competition Among Local Governments after Fiscal Decentralization

Business and Entrepreneurial Review ◽

10.25105/ber.v5i1.1010 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 48

Author(s):

Haryo Kuncoro

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Local Governments ◽

Central Government ◽

Fiscal Decentralization ◽

Spatial Interaction ◽

Government Expenditures ◽

Fiscal Competition ◽

Intergovernmental Grants ◽

Intergovernmental Transfers ◽

Local Government Expenditures

Spatial interaction among local governments in fiscal setting decisions is receiving increasingly attention in the applied public economics literature. Spatial interaction models rely on the presence of an externality from local budget making, that is external effects originate from inter-jurisdictional resource flows due to tax competition for a mobile base, or from local public expenditure spillovers into neighboring jurisdictions. Similarly, the intergovernmental grants competition exists when there is a rivalry among local governments to get them from central government. This paper attempted to identify how great the fiscal competition among local governments in Indonesia. Using spatial statistics, we concluded that the fiscal competition among municipalities was greater compared to the pre fiscal decentralization period. It seems that the local tax setting and expenditures decisions in particular municipality can be attributed to the mimicking behavior to neighbor regions. Also, we found that the fiscal competition among municipalities could be attributed negatively to the fiscal disparity. Those imply that in the regional autonomy era the local governments tend to increase their local own revenue intensively and demand for intergovernmental grants in order to finance their expenditures. In the long run, they could lead to the high cost economy, worsening fiscal dependency, and inefficiency of local government expenditures. Those findings above suggest that the distribution of intergovernmental transfers among regions should consider the local tax effort and the services minimum standard plays an important role to achieve the efficiency of local government expenditures.

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THE DETERMINANTS OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL FLOWS OF FUNDS

National Tax Journal ◽

10.1086/ntj41790975 ◽

1964 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 75-85

Author(s):

SEYMOUR SACKS ◽

ROBERT HARRIS

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Government Expenditures ◽

State And Local Government ◽

Local Government Expenditures ◽

State And Local

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Health Care Cost Containment in Large American Cities

Public Personnel Management ◽

10.1177/009102608901800108 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 87-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Perry Moore

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Cost Containment ◽

Local Governments ◽

Health Care Cost ◽

The United States ◽

Public Agencies ◽

The Public ◽

Survey Results ◽

The Cost ◽

American Cities

This research provides information about the health care cost containment efforts of local governments and agencies across the United States, particularly in large American cities. Survey results indicate that while the public sector lags behind the private sector, public agencies are beginning to match the cost containment efforts of private employers. While initiation of these efforts represents considerable recent progress, their tangible benefits are not yet apparent.

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Health Care Utilization and Expenditures in Persons Receiving Social Assistance in 2012 Evidence From Switzerland

Global Journal of Health Science ◽

10.5539/gjhs.v7n4p1 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Oliver Reich ◽

Felix Wolffers ◽

Andri Signorell ◽

Eva Blozik

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Utilization ◽

Social Assistance ◽

Care Utilization

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Resistance to Change Processes and Strategies for the Implementation of Harmonization Reforms: The Separation of the Health Care Expenditure in the Regional Financial Statements

International Journal of Business and Management ◽

10.5539/ijbm.v13n3p42 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 42

Author(s):

Giuseppe Modarelli ◽

Migliavacca Alessandro ◽

Puddu Luigi ◽

Modarelli Giuseppe

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Local Governments ◽

Resistance To Change ◽

Health Care Expenditure ◽

Financial Statements ◽

Financial Accounting ◽

Financial Statement ◽

Change Processes ◽

Organizational Responses ◽

Rational Management

The Legislative Decree n. 118/2011, in setting the rules for the harmonization of the financial accounting of the local governments, represents a further progress for the accounting process also for the health care. In the specific case the article 20 defines a precise identification perimeter of revenue and expenditure related with National Health Service (NHS) by the regulations in the regional financial statements, in a way to make possible an immediate comparability between the Health Care incomes and expenditures in the Regional financial statement. The aim of this paper, always referred to the Rational Management based on financial statement, focuses the attention on the possible correlation between organizational responses to institutional pressure and the theoretical roles of accounting, tracing lines of best practices compliance or not on the sample above explained.

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Local Government Expenditures on Care Services vs. Demographic Changes in Poland

Acta Universitatis Lodziensis Folia oeconomica ◽

10.18778/0208-6018.346.02 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 (346) ◽

pp. 27-42

Author(s):

Agnieszka Monika Bobrowska

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Local Governments ◽

Financial Burden ◽

The Elderly ◽

Specialist Care ◽

High Increase ◽

Demographic Situation ◽

Care Services ◽

Local Government Expenditures ◽

The Republic

Local governments as the smallest units of territorial self‑government in Poland are responsible for providing care services. The growing number of the elderly can influence the expenditures level connected with ensuring proper care for them, and it may constitute a growing problem for local government, especially for districts with a lower level of socio‑economic development. In recent years, a quite high increase in benefits amount due to care services and specialist care services has been observed. Therefore, a question arises whether a significant dependence can be observed between the share of the elderly in the population and the degree of local governments’ financial burden due to providing care services. The aim of this paper is to indicate voivodeships where local governments bear the biggest burden of providing care services and to verify whether it is connected with their demographic situation. The data which were subject to the static analysis conducted came from public sources: the report of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy of the Republic of Poland and elaborations of the Central Statistic Office. The situation of particular voivodeships has been defined in the scope of society ageing and burdening local government with care services. Only in the case of half of voivodeships it has been proven that the level (low, medium or high) of burden of the said services corresponds to the same level of the number of the elderly in their population, which can confirm that the amount of care services is connected with a demographic situation of a given voivodeship.

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