Suchergebnisse

The political article tests for rational political business cycles models on an unexplored and large data set of Portuguese municipalities. This data allows for a clean test of the models due to its high level of detail on expenditure items, an exogenous fixed election schedule and the homogeneity of local governments with respect to policy instruments and institutions. Estimation results clearly reveal the opportunistic behaviour of local governments, that in pre-electoral periods, increase expenditure on items highly visible to the electorate such as roads and street construction, in an effort to signal competence and increase their chances of re-election. JEL classification: H72, D72, D78 Keywords: political business cycles, public finance, local governments

This article tests for the existence of rational political business cycles models using a large and unexplored data set of Portuguese municipalities. The data set is well-suited for this purpose because it provides a high level of detail on expenditure items, because Portuguese municipalities are homogeneous with respect to policy instruments and institutions and follow an exogenously determined election schedule. Estimation results clearly reveal the existence of opportunistic behaviour by local governments. Expenditures increase in pre-election periods, especially on items that are highly visible to the electorate (e.g., highways and streets). This suggests an effort to signal competence and improve chances of ...

The present article tests predictions of rational political business cycle models using a large and previously unexplored data set of Portuguese municipalities. This data allows for a clean test of these predictions due to the high level of detail on expenditure items, an exogenous fixed election schedule, and homogeneity of Portuguese local governments with respect to policy instruments and institutions. Estimation results clearly reveal the opportunistic behaviour of local governments. In pre-electoral periods, they increase total expenditures and change their composition favouring items that are highly visible to the electorate. This behaviour is consistent with an effort to signal competence and increase chances of re-election. Adapted from the source document.

The present article tests predictions of rational political business cycle models using a large and previously unexplored data set of Portuguese municipalities. This data allows for a clean test of these predictions due to the high level of detail on expenditure items, an exogenous fixed election schedule, and homogeneity of Portuguese local governments with respect to policy instruments and institutions. Estimation results clearly reveal the opportunistic behaviour of local governments. In pre-electoral periods, they increase total expenditures and change their composition favouring items that are highly visible to the electorate. This behaviour is consistent with an effort to signal competence and increase chances of re-election. ; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - project Voters, policymakers and the economy ...

This article tests for the existence of rational political business cycles models using a large and unexplored data set of Portuguese municipalities. The data set is well-suited for this purpose because it provides a high level of detail on expenditure items, because Portuguese municipalities are homogeneous with respect to policy instruments and institutions and follow an exogenously determined election schedule. Estimation results clearly reveal the existence of opportunistic behaviour by local governments. Expenditures increase in pre-election periods, especially on items that are highly visible to the electorate (e.g., highways and streets). This suggests an effort to signal competence and improve chances of re-election. ; Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) -Programa Operacional Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação ...

The article analyzes the problems of implementing national projects at the municipal level. Based on the materials of the next wave of the annual expert survey of heads of municipalities conducted by the authors in March-April 2020 as part of monitoring the socio-economic situation in Russian municipalities. The author assesses the current situation, shows its distinctive features and trends in the context of the dynamics of the last decade, identifies the main problems that arise in municipalities in modern conditions during the implementation of national projects and possible ways to solve them. It is shown that serious barriers to the implementation of national projects at the municipal level, in addition to the wellknown problem of financial support, are the imperfection of the regulatory framework, insufficient methodological and information support, organizational difficulties, as well as personnel problems that significantly complicate the implementation of specific activities. The main obstacles to the implementation of national projects at the local level are weak coordination, inconsistency of actions of various bodies, centralization of managerial influences, as well as limited and insufficient certainty of the powers of local self-government bodies in the implementation of national projects. It is concluded that it is necessary to improve the mechanisms of interaction between regional and local authorities, aimed at significantly increasing the role assigned to local governments in the implementation of national projects. An important basis for decision-making in the development and evaluation of the effectiveness of national projects should be taking into account the opinions of heads of municipalities on the basis of sociological monitoring of the socio-economic situation and evaluating the effectiveness of measures taken to resolve problems at the municipal level.

AbstractWe analyze the effect of municipal financial transparency on the magnitude of political budget cycles. Our sample covers the Spanish largest municipalities in the period 1999‐2009. While the impact of transparency on the electoral cycle has been studied at the international and regional level, there is no empirical evidence of its effect at the local level. Using the financial transparency index made by Transparency International Spain, we show that municipalities with lower levels of financial transparency present an electoral cycle in total spending, whereas such an electoral impact on total spending does not appear in high transparent municipalities. Furthermore, the magnitude of cycles in capital spending and taxes does not vary among low‐transparency municipalities and high‐transparency municipalities.

Das Zusammenspiel von Klimawandelauswirkungen und Urbanisierung erfordert die besondere Aufmerksamkeit der Stadtentwicklung. So sind laut Baugesetzbuch Klimaschutz und Klimaanpassung "insbesondere auch in der Stadtentwicklung" zu fördern. Doch die kommunale Klimapolitik ist in komplexe institutionelle Strukturen eingebunden: Nach Art. 28 GG kommt den Gemeinden zwar die Planungshoheit zu, die föderalen Strukturen des Staatsaufbaus begrenzen aber zugleich die Handlungsspielräume der Gebietskörperschaften. ; Climate change in combination with urbanization means special challenges to local governments and urban planning. The Federal Building Code specifies that climate mitigation and adaptation measures should be especially enhanced in urban development. According to the German constitution, municipalities hold communal planning sovereignty. But the federal structures also limit the room to maneuver for German municipalities. Since they are part of the executive force, they are also subject to diverse constraints and dependencies from multiple institutions.

Across the world people are moving nationally from rural areas to bigger towns and cities, and within the European Union, people are also increasingly moving between countries. While migration in the Nordic countries has exceeded natural population increase as the most prominent driver of population growth, the Baltic countries have experienced significant out-migration in the latest decades. However, migration is only one of several demographic challenges that affect the demographic structure in municipalities and regions. Ageing of the population is another key challenge; in some places emphasised by out-migration of people in age groups being active in the labour force. Life-expectancy has steadily increased and together with the decrease in birth and death rates, people are living longer while the number of children is declining. Retirement age, the age when people exit the labour force, has not changed parallel with the increasing life expectancy and thus adds to the increased proportion of non-productive elderly citizens. These changes in the composition of the population will increasingly affect vital societal parameters such as the labour supply and the dependency burden, and eventually the ability to provide sufficient social services at municipal level.