Public expenditure and human development in Brazilian municipalities

Purpose: This study examines the relationship between the structure of public expenditure composition in Brazilian municipalities governments and the local human development in the period from 2005 to 2016. Methodology: Hypothesis testing was used to analyze the relationship between public spending...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sousa, Rossana Guerra, Santos, Leandro da Costa, Cavalcanti, Rebeca Silva, Queiroz, Dimas Barreto
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)
Repositorio:Revista Ambiente Contábil
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:periodicos.ufrn.br:article/25515
Acceso en línea:https://periodicos.ufrn.br/ambiente/article/view/25515
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Public expenditures
Human development
Structure of public expenditure composition
Gastos públicos
Desarrollo humano
Estructura de los gastos públicos
Desenvolvimento humano
Estrutura dos gastos públicos
desenvolvimento humano
Descripción
Sumario:Purpose: This study examines the relationship between the structure of public expenditure composition in Brazilian municipalities governments and the local human development in the period from 2005 to 2016. Methodology: Hypothesis testing was used to analyze the relationship between public spending in municipalities, which were categorized according to their spending indexes (SI), and the Índice Firjan de Desenvolvimento Municipal (Firjan Municipal Development Index; IFDM), a proxy for human development, based on the concept proposed by Sen (1999). Therefore, data from all 5,570 Brazilian municipalities were used, treated in an aggregated form using Data Panel analysis and Quantile Regression to more comprehensively address the heterogeneity of Brazilian municipalities. Results: The results make possible to infer that the changes in the public expenditure composition did not produce a striking improvement to the population’s well-being. It is evident that despite the maintenance of social policies due to strong regulation by the central government, spending, although increasing in these areas, has not been producing the desired effects in improving the population's well-being indicators. Contributions of the Study: This research contributes to academia and society, as it shows that for Brazilian municipalities to make effective strides toward growing and toward sustainable human development indicators in a more incisive way, the hegemonization of the public expenditure policy requires adjustments. These adjustments could consider the idiosyncratic conditions of the different stages of human development in the subnational units.