Tax Me, But Spend Wisely? Sources of Public Finance and Government Accountability
Tax Me, But Spend Wisely? Sources of Public Finance and Government Accountability
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DOI：
10.1257/app.20150509
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发表时间：
2016
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Lucie Gadenne
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lucie Gadenne
现有证据表明，额外的赠款收入对发展中国家的公共服务几乎没有改善——但是政府会以不同的方式使用税收收入吗？本文考虑了一个投资于巴西市政当局税收能力的项目。利用项目实施时间的变化，我发现它增加了地方税收，税收的增加被用来提高市政教育基础设施的数量和质量。相比之下，市政当局拥有与税收相同的自由裁量权的补助金的增加对当地公共基础设施的任何衡量都没有影响。这些结果表明，政府的融资方式很重要：政府将增加的税收收入更多地用于造福公民的支出，而不是增加拨款收入。
Existing evidence suggests that extra grant revenues lead to little improvements in public services in developing countries - but would governments spend tax revenues differently? This paper considers a program that invests in the tax capacity of Brazilian municipalities. Using variations in the timing of program uptake I find that it raises local tax revenues and that the increase in taxes is used to improve both the quantity and quality of municipal education infrastructure. In contrast increases in grants over which municipalities have the same discretion as over taxes have no impact on any measure of local public infrastructure. These results suggest that the way governments are financed matters: governments spend increases in tax revenues more towards expenditures that benefit citizens than increases in grant revenues.