What are the determinants of expenditure by functions in Local Authorities? A multivariate analysis Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • Increasingly, local authorities have to satisfy a great variety of citizens' needs efficiently, resulting from the transfer of competences from Central Administration. However, the scarcity of public resources often requires an increased tax burden, as a way to gather income to finance public expenditure. This can be of various types (general, social, economic and other functions) and determined by various factors (institutional, economic, budgetary and political, among others). There is a clear need for politicians/public managers to have mechanisms to control and inspect public expenditure, in order to avoid an increased tax burden or debt. In this context, this study aims to identify public expenditure by functions in Portuguese local authorities, so as to help politicians/public managers to control this. The results obtained reveal that the illiteracy rate, size, purchasing power index and the form of governance are determinants of some types of expenditure by municipal functions.
  • UNIAG, R&D unit funded by the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. Project no. UIDB/04752/2020. 2 This study was conducted at the Research Center in Political Science (UIDB/CPO/00758/2020), University of Minho/University of Évora and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds.

publication date

  • April 1, 2020