scholarly journals Regional Competition, Labor Force Mobility, and the Fiscal Behaviour of Local Governments in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gangqiang Yang ◽  
Hong Chen ◽  
Xia Meng

At present, China is in a critical period of transition from labor-intensive industries to capital- and technology-intensive industries. Accordingly, the increasing labor force mobility among Chinese cities has promoted competition over production factors among regions, having a significant impact on local governments’ fiscal expenditure structure. A theoretical analysis shows that the competition of livelihood public good expenditures is playing an increasingly important role in the factor flow competition. Different labor forces’ demand for different public goods and local governments’ demand for different labor forces affect the structural preference of local government fiscal expenditures. Based on panel data on Chinese prefecture-level cities in 2010–2016, this paper empirically tests the impact of different labor mobilities on the structure of local government fiscal expenditures, finding that current decision making on labor mobility is increasingly sensitive to the supply of livelihood public goods, and strengthening labor mobility has reversed the expenditure bias historically caused by the government’s simple capital competition. After dividing the mobile labor force based on whether the labor is settled in the current year, the two labor force types’ demand for different livelihood public goods was found to be different. To attract different labor inflows, local governments should promote an increase in relevant livelihood public good expenditures, showing a strategic fiscal expenditure structural bias. Specifically, with increasing new added general labor mobility, local goverments will increase the proportion of fiscal expenditures on education and medical care, combined with the increase of newly added registered labor mobility, which will correspondingly increase the proportion of environmental protection expenditures.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Constantina Costopoulou ◽  
Maria Ntaliani ◽  
Filotheos Ntalianis

Local governments are increasingly developing electronic participation initiatives, expecting citizen involvement in local community affairs. Our objective was to assess e-participation and the extent of its change in local government in Greece. Using content analysis for 325 Greek municipal websites, we assessed e-participation status in 2017 and 2018 and examined the impact of change between these years. The assessment regards two consecutive years since the adoption of digital technologies by municipalities has been rapid. The main findings show that Greek local governments have made significant small- to medium-scale changes, in order to engage citizens and local societies electronically. We conclude that the integration of advanced digital technologies in municipalities remains underdeveloped. We propose that Greek municipalities need to consider incorporating new technologies, such as mobile apps, social media and big data, as well as e-decision making processes, in order to eliminate those obstacles that hinder citizen engagement in local government. Moreover, the COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted the need for enhancing e-participation and policymakers’ coordination through advanced digital technologies.


Author(s):  
Sue Rhodes

In the current economic climate, creating the right environment for local enterprise, inward investment, and business and skills development, is an important factor in ensuring the prosperity and wellbeing of local communities. The impact of the global financial crisis has not been uniform across the Commonwealth and countries are using different strategies to overcome their financial difficulties. Local government increasingly plays an important part in this. More and more local governments in countries across the Commonwealth have responsibilities and powers for local economic development: in some countries local authorities can already show how their policies and actions are helping energise their local economies, while in other countries local councils are just beginning to get to grips with these responsibilities.


Author(s):  
Jude C Okafor ◽  
Ikechukwu H Orjinta

The 1976 Local Government Reform among other landmark changes unified the local government system in Nigeria, and the 1979 constitution made local governments the third tier of government and provided for a system of local government by democratically elected councils. More recently, elected local government councils have been dissolved and replaced with Transition Committees or Caretaker Committees appointed by the Governors’ of their respective states. This paper therefore, examines the impact of the caretaker committees in Nigerian Local Government on the practice of constitutional democracy. The discussion is framed by the theoretical perspectives and Nigerian literature on local government and constitutional democracy, and by the recent phenomenal wave of dissolving elected local government councils and subsequent replacement with caretaker committees. Contrary to popular belief, that local government as the third tier of government has failed to achieve the objective for which it was created, this paper observes that party politics has been the bane of Nigerian local government since its inception, and that democratically elected local councils with political and financial autonomy are the major conditions for an effective and efficient multi-purpose local government system in Nigeria.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Trust Madhovi

This paper examines the impact of social accountability mechanisms on the fiscal management challenges facing local government bodies in Zimbabwe. The paper hypothesises that there is a positive relationship between the use of social accountability mechanisms or tools by local authorities and the effectiveness of their fiscal management policies to mobilize more revenue for service delivery. In this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted in gathering and analysing data from central government officials, Goromonzi Rural District Council employees and members of the public. The results of the study reveal that the local government body faces a number of fiscal management challenges that include a shrinking tax base, non-payment of taxes, resistance to successive budgets; lack of implementation; lack of monitoring and evaluation. Council has implemented participatory budgeting to deal with some of these challenges. While results show a significant improvement in tax collection, some of the challenges have persisted. The paper proposes some recommendations useful to central government, policy makers, civil society organisations, local government officials and the general public. The paper manages to demonstrate that the implementation of social accountability tools can have positive impacts on the fiscal management challenges facing local governments. 


1985 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre-Henri Derycke ◽  
Guy Gilbert

ABSTRACTAfter a sharp increase, the public debt of French local communities has been stabilized in real terms: its amount reached 54 per cent of total public debt in 1980. In the French institutional framework, local government borrowing policy is under the tight control of central agencies. An econometric model of the borrowing behaviour of local governments since 1965 is presented; it emphasizes the role of internal determinants of local debt (needs for investment, self-financing ability of governments), external constraints (e.g. interest rates and the financial resources of lenders, such as households savings), and finally the impact of macroeconomic policy measures from the central government.


Author(s):  
Alexey Chugunov

The subject of the study is theoretical and practical issues of the formation of budgets of local self-government in the system of social development of territorial communities. The purpose of the study is to reveal the priority tasks for improving the system of formation of budgets of local self-government. Research methods. The paper uses a set of scientific methods and approaches, including systematic, structural, comparative, factor methods, which allowed to realize the conceptual unity of the research. Results of work. The article reveals the role of local self-government budgets in the development of administrative-territorial units. A number of legislative and normative acts on regulation of the process of formation of budgets of local self-government are generalized. The priority tasks of the budget policy concerning support of territorial communities, strengthening of their tax capacity, increase of efficiency of coordination of activity of bodies of state power and local self-government are determined. The article is based on the establishment of an effective institutional framework for the formation of local self-government budgets in the system of social development of territorial communities. The field of application of results. System of state financial regulation, budgetary policy, budget system. Conclusions. The development of the budget system is possible by ensuring the sustainability of the formation of local government budgets in the system of social development of territorial communities, activating their innovation-investment component and strengthening the influence on the socio-economic development of administrative-territorial units. The importance of further enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the formation of local government budgets is conditioned by the need to increase the efficiency of the management of public financial resources in the conditions of their constraints, the development of a strategy for the development of local government budgets and the creation of institutional conditions for increasing their self-sufficiency, taking into account the cyclical nature of economic fluctuations and the impact of exogenous and endogenous factors in financially -budgetary environment. At this stage, the important task is to implement effective transformations of the system of forming local budgets by supporting voluntary associations of territorial communities, which necessitates the increase of efficiency and efficiency of administrative decisions of executive bodies and local governments in the field of strategic budget planning. It is advisable to improve the system of monitoring the socioeconomic efficiency of local government budget expenditures by using qualitative and quantitative indicators, introducing medium-term budget planning at the local level, adhering to the principle of transparency and accountability of local self-governance bodies to the public. Important tasks are improving the system of formation of local budgets taking into account application of modern financial-budget methods and tools; Creation of effective incentives to ensure the interest of local self-government bodies in the growth of their own income base and increase their level of responsibility for the use of budget resources; ensuring adequate revenues to local government budgets, and increasing the efficiency of the use of budget resources.


Author(s):  
Catherine Campbell

Local food production (LFP) can play an impor­tant role in ensuring access to food during supply chain disruptions. Because the drafting, adoption, and implementation of policies regulating LFP is under the purview of local governments in many U.S. states, researchers at University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Exten­sion conducted a study to assess whether COVID-19 affected local government stakeholders’ (LGS) (N=92) perspectives on LFP and the role that LFP can play in responding to public health emergen­cies. LGS who oversee the drafting, adoption, and implementation of LFP policies include staff responsible for code enforcement, sustainability initiatives, and planning, as well as elected and ap­pointed leaders, such as mayors, city and county managers, and city and county commissioners. The survey assessed LGS’ attitudes and knowledge about LFP. The survey also asked LGS about their perceptions and awareness of LFP in their commu­nities, including their perceptions of the benefits of and barriers to LFP and the ways in which LFP producers were using the food they produced. Sur­vey questions also focused specifically on COVID-19 and the role of LFP in public health emergen­cies. In particular, survey questions asked whether LGS perceived a change in their own attitudes, knowledge, and perspectives; whether there had been a change in the LFP activi­ties in their communities following COVID-19; and what they thought the role of LFP was in responding to public health emergencies. Direct comparisons of LGS who responded to a 2019 survey (N=43) were assessed for statistically sig­nificant changes in overall attitudes, knowledge, or perceived benefits of LFP following COVID-19. This study found that LGS have generally positive attitudes and perceptions of benefits of LFP, including its role in public health emergencies, but have limited knowledge about LFP or awareness of barriers to its implementation. The results of this study indicate that LGS understand the potential benefits of LFP in public health emergencies but would benefit from information and training to support the development of policies and programs in their communities.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jahen Fachrul Rezki

This paper analyses the impact of political competition on local government performance in Indonesia. This study uses a new database that covers 427 districts in Indonesia, from 2000 to 2013. In Indonesia, local governments are largely responsible for fulfilling basic service delivery and, in this regard, they are extremely powerful. Political competition is measured using the Herfindahl Hirschman Concentration Index for the district parliament election. This variable is potentially endogenous, because political competition is likely to be non-random and correlated with unobservable variables. To solve this problem, I use the lag of political competition for neighbouring districts within the same province, as well as the political competition from the 1955 general election, as instrumental variables for political competition. The degree of political competition has been found to boost real Regional Gross Domestic Product (RGDP) per capita by 1.9%. Furthermore, a one standard deviation increase in political competition would increase RGDP growth by approximately 0.81%. The results also support the findings of previous studies, which have found that stiffer political competition is associated with higher public spending (e.g. infrastructure spending) and pro-business policies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaidir Iswanaji

The audit process is essential to ensure the accountability of local government financial reports.The phenomenon in Indonesia, especially in the financial statements of local government arevery few local governments that receive unqualified notes of CPC. The role of internal audit intospacious with new concepts and rules that developed among other things, software COBIT. Thepurpose of this study was to determine the role of internal audit and the impact of InformationTechnology on data management processes using COBIT to the role of internal audit in BPK. Themethod used is descriptive qualitative. Data were collected by interview, documentation andobservation. The interviews were conducted by two members of the internal audit in BPK. Mechanical analysis of data using the Interactive model analysis. The results of this study are;First, the role of internal audit is not only limited to the examination, but also performs manyfunctions and consulting services in order to improve the performance of CPC. Second, the auditor can use Audit Guidelines as an additional material to design audit procedures. In short, inparticular COBIT guidelines can be modified easily, according to the industry. In conclusion IT asa bridge between the risks of IT with the control needed ( IT risk management) and also the mainreferences were very helpful in the application of IT Governance in the CPC.Keyword: Internal Audit, COBIT and CPC.


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