Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2019, 67(2), 503-513 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201967020503

Political Expenditure Cycle at the Municipal Government Level in Slovakia

Lenka Maličká
Department of Finance, Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Košice, Letná 9, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia

The idea of the political budget cycle impact on the public expenditure volume and structure raises discussion related mainly to the national government level. Political decision-making at the sub-national government level emulates certain common tendencies. In the election time, the political incumbent might seek for re-election. In aim to increase its own chances, it might manipulate the budget (or fiscal) policy and makes changes in the field of expenditure categories. In this paper, the existence of political expenditure cycle at the municipal level of government in Slovakia is investigated. The dynamic panel data model using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) system estimator reveals the positive impact of election year variable on per capita municipal expenditure, while the additional pre-election year variable is insignificant.

Keywords: political cycle, local government, local expenditures, panel data, generalized method of moments
Grants and funding:

This paper was supported by VEGA no. 1/0806/18.

Received: January 30, 2018; Accepted: February 18, 2019; Published: April 29, 2019  Show citation

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Maličká, L. (2019). Political Expenditure Cycle at the Municipal Government Level in Slovakia. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 67(2), 503-513. doi: 10.11118/actaun201967020503
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