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Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth: Evidence from Spanish Regions
Author(s) -
CANTARERO DAVID,
GONZALEZ PATRICIO PEREZ
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
public budgeting and finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.694
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1540-5850
pISSN - 0275-1100
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5850.2009.00941.x
Subject(s) - decentralization , economics , per capita , gross domestic product , revenue , unitary state , linkage (software) , null hypothesis , monetary economics , macroeconomics , econometrics , finance , market economy , population , biochemistry , chemistry , demography , sociology , political science , law , gene
The degree of fiscal decentralization in Spain is similar to main federal countries and greater than unitary ones. The demand of public sector decentralization is based on a supposed efficiency gains that is far from being obvious. Using a data set for the Spanish regions, we reject the null hypothesis of a significant relationship between growth in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and expenditure distribution among fiscal administrations. Nonetheless, we find empirical support for a relationship between revenue decentralization, far less advanced than the expenditure one, and growth. In both cases we do reject the null hypothesis of a nonlinear linkage between fiscal decentralization and growth in per capita GDP.