CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Kazantcev, Kirill |
|---|---|
| Title | The effect of Government Structure on Public Expenditure: Evidence from Russian Self-Government |
| Summary | The thesis explores the effect of the local self-government structure on municipal fiscal policy. It was shown that in democratic countries, appointed officials have different incentives from the elected ones. I investigate whether this effect is present in the setting where democratic accountability is restricted, and appointed mayors depend on governors' decisions. I use an unbalanced 10-years sample of 443 Russian cities which account for approximately one-half of the Russian population, to test empirical hypotheses. The gradual process of spatial diffusion of transitions from election to appointment system allows employing IV strategy. I find that switch from elected mayors results in a 15-20\% decrease in income flows from region to municipality and a corresponding 10-15\% fall in local government expenditure. The driving mechanism is a weak bargaining position of appointed mayors and governors' incentives to keep resources. Finally, I find a weak negative effect of appointment on the level of public goods provision. |
| Supervisor | Lichagin, Sergey |
| Department | Economics MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/kazantcev_kirill.pdf |
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