Naslov
The Impact of Local Governments’ Budget Transparency on Debt in Croatia

Autori
Reis Mourão, Paulo ; Bronić, Mihaela ; Stanić, Branko

Izvornik
South East European Journal of Economics and Business (1840-118X) 18 (2023), 2; 21-33

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
local governments ; debt ; own revenues ; budget transparency ; Croatia

Sažetak
We investigate the impact of the budget transparency of local governments on debt using a panel data anal-ysis of all 556 Croatian cities and municipalities over the 2014-2021 period. The analysis shows that increased budget transparency is associated with lower local government debt, i.e., budget transparency enables bet-ter public control of unnecessary debt. Additionally, regarding the legal regulation according to which higher own revenues enable higher borrowing, we examine the link between budget transparency and own rev-enues. The results show that local governments with higher budget transparency have higher own revenues, i.e., budget transparency can help local governments better control opportunistic borrowing and simultane-ously increase their own revenues. Finally, we detect political budget cycles related to local government rev-enues and debt. This paper constitutes the first attempt to explore the effect of budget transparency on debt and own revenues in all local governments in one young democracy.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Ekonomija, Interdisciplinarne društvene znanosti

POVEZANOST RADA