The effect of fiscal decentralization on economic growth in sub-national governments of Ethiopia: A two-step system general methods of moments (GMM) approach
-
DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/pmf.12(2).2023.03
-
Article InfoVolume 12 2023, Issue #2, pp. 32-42
- Cited by
- 443 Views
-
237 Downloads
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
The study examines the impact of fiscal decentralization on Ethiopia’s Subnational (Regional) economic growth. The study followed a quantitative research procedure employing data from 2008 to 2021. The units of analysis in the study are Ethiopia’s sub-national governments (SNGs). The study used the two-step System General Method of Moments (GMM) of dynamic panel estimation because it resolves concerns such as endogeneity and heteroscedasticity. The study’s findings revealed that expenditure, revenue, and composite decentralization have a statistically significant negative effect on regional economic growth. Moreover, among the control variables, inflation and government size have a statistically significant detrimental effect on regional economic growth. However, human capital has no significant effect. Ethiopia’s fiscal decentralization contradicts the goals and theoretical underpinnings of fiscal federalism. This may be because fiscal decentralization and economic activities function within an ethnically based federalism framework. The primary implication is that the federal government needs to reevaluate the transfer of fiscal authority to SNGs. Transforming tax policy into a robust institutional mechanism for economic growth is vital. The revenue and spending sides of intergovernmental relations also need to be closely related. As opposed to prior studies, which utilized one or two fiscal decentralization indicators, this study used multiple indicators, making the study more thorough and closing the knowledge gap.
- Keywords
-
JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)О18, Е62, С12
-
References42
-
Tables7
-
Figures0
-
- Table 1. Research variables
- Table 2. Descriptive statistics
- Table 3. The effect of expenditure decentralization on economic growth
- Table 4. The effect of revenue decentralization on economic growth
- Table 5. The effect of composite decentralization on economic growth
- Table A1. Test of normality
- Table A2. Test of multicollinearity. Matrix of correlations
-
- Arellano, M., & Bond, S. (1991). Some tests of specification for panel data: Monte Carlo evidence and an application to employment equations. The Review of Economic Studies, 58(2), 277-297.
- Arellano, M., & Bover, O. (1995). Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models. Journal of Econometrics, 68(1), 29-51.
- Barro, R. J. (1990). Human capital and growth: Theory and evidence. Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, 32, 287-291.
- Baskaran, T., & Feld, L. P. (2012). Fiscal decentralization and economic growth in OECD countries. Public Finance Review, 41(4), 421-445.
- Blöchliger, H., Égert, B., & Fredriksen, K. (2013). Fiscal Federalism and its Impact on Economic Activity, Public Investment and the Performance of Educational Systems (OECD Working Papers No. 1051). OECD Publishing.
- Blundell, R., & Bond, S. (1998). Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models. Journal of Econometrics, 87(1), 115-143.
- Blundell, R., & Bond, S. (2000). GMM estimation with persistent panel data: An application to production functions. Econometric Reviews, 19(3), 321-340.
- Boadway, R. (2005). The Vertical Fiscal Gap: Conceptions and misconceptions. In H. Lazar (Ed.), Canadian Fiscal Arrangements: What Works, what might work Better (pp. 51-80). Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Press.
- Boadway, R., & Tremblay, J. (2012). Reassessment of the Tiebout model. Journal of Public Economics, 96(11-12), 1063-1078.
- Brennan, G., & Buchanan, J. (1980). Power to Tax: Analytical Foundations of a Fiscal Constitution. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Davoodi, H., & Zou, H. (1998). Fiscal decentralization and economic growth: A cross-country study. Journal of Urban Economics, 43(2), 244-257.
- Ghebrehiwet, T. (2015). The Practice of Fiscal Federalism in Ethiopia: A Critical Assessment 1991–2012. An Institutional Approach (Doctoral Thesis). University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
- Iimi, A. (2005). Decentralization and economic growth revisited: An empirical note. Journal of Urban Economics, 57(3), 449-461.
- Iqbal, N., Musleh Ud Din, M. U., & Ghani, E. (2012). Fiscal decentralization and economic growth: Role of democratic institutions. The Pakistan Development Review, 51(3), 173-195.
- Jin, J., & Zou, H. (2002). How does fiscal decentralization affect aggregate, national, and subnational government size? Journal of Urban Economics, 52(2), 270-293.
- Lee, J.-S. (2013). The Process of Decentralization in Ethiopia since 1991: Issues on Improving Efficiency. Korea Review of International Studies, 16, 3-16.
- Lin, J., & Liu, Z. (2000). Fiscal decentralization and economic growth in China. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 49(1), 1-21.
- Liu, L. C. (2017). Fiscal Decentralization, Public Governance, and Economic Performance Examination of Two PLS-SEM Models. Taiwan Journal of Democracy, 13(2), 55-72.
- Loizides, J., & Vamvoukas, G. (2005). Government expenditure and economic growth: Evidence from Trivariate causality testing. Journal of Applied Economics, 8(1), 125-152.
- Makreshanska-Mladenovska, S., & Petrevski, G. (2019). Fiscal decentralization and government size: Evidence from a panel of European countries. Revista Hacienda Pública Española, 229(2), 33-58.
- Malik, S., Hassan, M., & Hussain, S. (2006). Fiscal decentralization and economic growth in Pakistan. The Pakistan Development Review, 45(4), 845-854.
- Martinez-Vazquez, J., & Timofeev, A. (2010). Choosing between centralized and decentralized models of tax administration. International Journal of Public Administration, 33(12-13), 601-619.
- Musgrave, R. A., & Musgrave, P. B. (1989). Public Finance in Theory and Practice (5th ed.). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
- Naumets, I. (2003). Fiscal Decentralization and Local Public Sector Efficiency (Master’s Thesis). National University of Kyiv, Ukraine.
- Nguyen, P. D., Vo, D. H., Ho, C. M., & Vo, A. T. (2019). Fiscal decentralization and economic growth across provinces: new evidence from Vietnam using a novel measurement and approach. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 12(3), 143.
- Oates, W. E. (1972). Fiscal Decentralization. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
- Oates, W. E. (2005). Toward a second-generation theory of fiscal federalism. International Tax and Public Finance, 12(4), 349-373.
- Philip, A. T., & Isah, S. (2012). An Analysis of the Effect of Fiscal Decentralization on Economic Growth in Nigeria. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(8), 141-149.
- Qian, Y., & Wingiest, B. R. (1997). Federalism is a commitment to preserving market incentives. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 11(4), 83-92.
- Rodriguez-Pose, A., & Ezcurra, R. (2011). Is fiscal decentralization harmful to economic growth? Evidence from the OECD countries. Journal of Economic Geography, 11(4), 619-643.
- Rodríguez-Pose, A., & Krøijer, A. (2009). Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth in Central and Eastern Europe. Growth and Change, 40(3), 387-417.
- Roodman, D. (2009). How to do Xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata. The Stata Journal: Promoting communications on statistics and Stata, 9(1), 86-136.
- Schneider, A. (2003). Who Gets What from Whom? The Impact of Decentralization on Tax Capacity and Pro-Poor Spending (IDS Working Paper No. 179). Brighton: IDS.
- Shah, A. (2006). A practitioner’s guide to intergovernmental fiscal transfers (Policy Research Working Papers).
- Smoke, P. (2001). Fiscal Decentralization in Developing Countries. A Review of Current Concepts and Practice. Geneva, UNRISD.
- Smoke, P. (2003). Decentralization in Africa: Goals, dimensions, myths, and challenges. Public Administration and Development, 23(1), 7-16.
- Su, D.T., Hoai, B.T., & Lam, D. M. (2014). The nexus between fiscal policy and sustained economic growth. Vietnamese Journal of Economic Development, 280, 2-21.
- Tarigan, M. S. (2003). Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Development: A Cross-Country Empirical Study. Forum of International Development Studies, 8(24), 845-271.
- Tiebout, C. M. (1956). A pure theory of local expenditures. Journal of Political Economy, 64(5), 416-424.
- Weingast, B. R. (2009). Second generation fiscal federalism: The implications of fiscal incentives. Journal of Urban Economics, 65(3), 279-293.
- Zhang, T., & Zou, H. (1998). Fiscal decentralization, public spending, and economic growth in China. Journal of Public Economics, 67(2), 221-240.
- Zhang, T., & Zou, H. (2001). The growth impact of the intersectoral and intergovernmental allocation of public expenditure. China Economic Review, 12(1), 58-81.