Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2018, 66(3), 755-766 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201866030755

Evaluation Structure of Local Public Expenditures in the European Union Countries

Martina Halásková1, Renata Halásková2
1 Department of Public Economics, Faculty of Economics, V©B - Technical University of Ostrava, Sokolská třída 33, 702 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic
2 Department of Technology and Vocational Education, Faculty of Education, University of Ostrava, Fráni ©rámka 3, 709 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic

The public sector plays a significant role in securing public needs in a number of countries. The paper aims to evaluate the local public sector by the structure of local public expenditures, emphasizing similarities and differences in EU countries. Attention is paid to the evaluation of local public expenditures by eight functions (general public services, public order and safety, economic affairs, housing and community amenities, recreation and culture, social protection, health, education) in years 2005 and 2015. Local public expenditures by function in the EU are evaluated in connection to lower government levels and fiscal decentralization of expenditures. The evaluation shows that no countries demonstrate similarity of local public expenditures by function, which is associated also with an identical size of fiscal decentralization of expenditures and the number of lower government levels. By contrast, both similarities and differences were proved with respect to the evaluated local public expenditures by the application of multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. The results have shown that Scandinavian countries represent the most marked differences in the structure of local public expenditures, in comparison to Malta and Cyprus in terms of local public expenditures on social protection, health and education.

Keywords: public finance, public expenditure, local public expenditure by function, evaluation, EU countries, multidimensional scaling, cluster analysis
Grants and funding:

This paper was supported within Operational Programme Education for Competitiveness (Project No. CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0296).

Published: June 28, 2018  Show citation

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Halásková, M., & Halásková, R. (2018). Evaluation Structure of Local Public Expenditures in the European Union Countries. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 66(3), 755-766. doi: 10.11118/actaun201866030755
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