Decomposition and time development of expenditure, investment and other public sector indicators in the Czech Republic
| Název práce v češtině: | Dekompozice a časový vývoj výdajů, investic a dalších ukazatelů veřejného sektoru v České republice |
|---|---|
| Název v anglickém jazyce: | Decomposition and time development of expenditure, investment and other public sector indicators in the Czech Republic |
| Klíčová slova: | Veřejné výdaje, veřejné investice, decentralizace, územní samospráva, nerovnosti napříč obcemi, granty, subvence, veřejný sektor |
| Klíčová slova anglicky: | Public expenditure, public investment, decentralisation, subnational governments, inequalities across municipalities, grants, subsidies, public sector |
| Akademický rok vypsání: | 2019/2020 |
| Typ práce: | bakalářská práce |
| Jazyk práce: | angličtina |
| Ústav: | Institut ekonomických studií (23-IES) |
| Vedoucí / školitel: | prof. Petr Janský, Ph.D. |
| Řešitel: | skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem |
| Datum přihlášení: | 28.09.2021 |
| Datum zadání: | 28.09.2021 |
| Datum a čas obhajoby: | 25.01.2023 09:00 |
| Místo konání obhajoby: | Opletalova - Opletalova 26, O109, AULA Michala Mejstříka č. 109 |
| Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: | 03.01.2023 |
| Datum proběhlé obhajoby: | 25.01.2023 |
| Oponenti: | Mgr. Tereza Palanská |
| Zásady pro vypracování |
| Which parts of the public sector are responsible for how much of debt, investment and other indicators and how do these decompositions change over time?
http://www.sng-wofi.org/publications/2019_SNG-WOFI_REPORT_Key_Findings.pdf More related topics and other information available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BqgkJZB35Q7VYmJrj8eE61cgKCFou08uZADfIk-iv6w/edit?usp=sharing |
| Seznam odborné literatury |
| Blöchliger, H., et al. 2010. “Sub-central Governments and the Economic Crisis: Impact and Policy Responses.” OECD Economics Department Working Papers. No. 752. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/5kml6xq5bgwc-en
Böckenförde, M. 2011. “Decentralized Forms of Government.” International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Dutu, R., and P. Sicari. 2016. “Public Spending Efficiency in the OECD: Benchmarking Health Care, Education and General Administration.” OECD Economics Department Working Papers. No. 1278. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/5jm3st732jnq-en Fjeldstad, O. H. & Chr. Michelsens institutt. 2004. “Decentralisation and Corruption.” Chr. Michelsen Institute, Development Studies and Human Rights. Ivanyna, M., and A. Shah. 2014. “How Close Is Your Government to Its People? Worldwide Indicators on Localization and Decentralization.” Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal. Vol. 8. http://dx.doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2014-3 OECD. 2020. “OECD Economic Surveys: Czech Republic 2020.” Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/1b180a5a-en OECD/UCLG. 2019. “2019 Report of the World Observatory on Subnational Government Finance and Investment – Key Findings.” Peters, G. B., and J. Pierre. 2012. The SAGE Handbook of Public Administration. 2nd ed. SAGE Publications Ltd. |
| Předběžná náplň práce v anglickém jazyce |
| The main research question I intend to study is which parts of the public sector in the Czech Republic are responsible for how much debt, investment and other indicators and how do these decompositions change over time.
A clear territorial organisation composed of national and subnational governance bodies and well-defined assignment of responsibilities across levels of government are necessary conditions for an effective, efficient and transparent territorial administration. Therefore, countries around the world should pursue these objectives in order to improve governance and public management (Peters and Pierre 2012). There is not a universal system of governance which would facilitate reaching this goal, whether it is federalism, where competencies are divided between central, state and local governments, or unitarism, where the central government shares some responsibilities with local governments. It does not even depend on the actual level of decentralisation, that is to say, how many responsibilities local authorities have, but rather on the way the decentralisation process is designed and the three dimensions of decentralisation—political, administrative and fiscal—are interconnected (Böckenförde 2011; Fjeldstad 2004). But, the trend of rising decentralisation has been observed in the majority of countries around the world (Ivanyna and Shah 2014). In the Czech Republic, the public spending efficiency was found to be below the OECD average, especially in the case of general public services, due to a high number of small territorial units for which the costs of public administration are relatively high (Dutu and Sicari 2016). This statement is supported by the data from 2018 which shows that expenditure per capita is higher in small municipalities, with the pattern being best visible for administrative expenditure. Besides, the data suggests a U-shape distribution in expenditure per capita across municipalities, indicating that the most cost-efficient municipalities are those with a population between 1000 and 2000 inhabitants. One element of public expenditure which should be examined more closely is public investment as it represents productive public expenditure which bears a significant association with economic growth. The evidence on investment projects from 2018 demonstrates that subnational governments in the Czech Republic perform about half of all public investment, which shows a key role of local authorities in public investment and corresponds to the OECD average. When it comes to investment per capita undertaken by small municipalities (less than 500 inhabitants), it accounts for less than half of investment per capita in mid-size (between 5000 and 10000 inhabitants) or large municipalities (more than 100000 inhabitants), which is caused by the low capacity of small-size municipalities (OECD 2020). My thesis attempts to address the questions regarding the volume of public expenditure and public investment, and the individual shares by which each level of government contributes to the total amount, based on the updated data for 2019 and 2020. Moreover, the thesis intends to describe the time development of decompositions of the mentioned indicators over the past years, which is in particular interesting for an analysis concerning the COVID-19 crisis and its effects on the level of public expenditure and public investment. To expand on that, the increased volume of subnational government expenditure due to the COVID-19 crisis could affect the level of subnational government debt. Existing studies suggest that subnational government debt is limited because municipalities are restricted in the ability to raise their own taxes or to borrow money (OECD/UCLG 2019). It holds also for the Czech Republic where the budgetary situation of subnational governments before the COVID-19 crisis was sound as their debt as a share of GDP was among the lowest in OECD countries (OECD 2020). Contribution The current crisis is expected to have a significant impact on subnational government fiscal balances as it happened during the 2009 global financial crisis when their positive fiscal balances turned to deficits (OECD 2020). It is caused by a “scissors effect” when subnational governments suffer from higher spending and lower tax revenue (Blöchliger et al. 2010). Nonetheless, the existing literature does not provide full evidence and understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the level of subnational government debt. By analysing the recent Czech public finance data, my thesis tries to answer the question of whether subnational government debt has increased due to the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. My thesis also tackles the question of how the decompositions of public expenditure, public investment, transfers, subsidies and other indicators have changed between different levels of the government structure over the past years, and whether the central government has delegated some of its competencies and resources to subnational tiers of government, which would contribute to empowering local authorities and their greater autonomy in managing such resources, and thereby confirming the trend of rising decentralisation. The thesis should result in our better understanding of the role of different tiers of government, their competencies and their spending responsibilities. Methodology I use Czech public finance data—open data from the Státní pokladna system from the Ministry of Finance. Státní pokladna is a comprehensive budgeting, reporting and accounting system for Czech public organisations, providing data for the complex structure of public administration. It contains data for the central government and the network of state administration as well as for the territorial public administration, including data for Czech regions and municipalities. For the analysis, the budgeting data are used in order to obtain relevant items, such as the volume of capital expenditure or fiscal balance, and carry out a comparative analysis between different layers of government or within the same level of government (inequalities across regions or municipalities). Outline Abstract Introduction a. why is my topic interesting b. brief overview of existing knowledge c. how I add to existing research d. main results and what they mean e. how is the thesis organised Literature review and hypotheses a. literature on multi-level government finance and investment b. evidence of the role of subnational governments in public spending c. what financial indicators will be analysed d. motivation why is it reasonable to analyse them Methodology a. relevant description of data b. how I perform the comparative analysis Results a. presentation of the results b. my interpretation of the results Conclusion a. broader interpretation of results b. implications for policy/contextualisation c. topics for further research |