Impact of own resources on municipalities’ investments expenditures in Benin
International Journal of Development Issues
ISSN: 1446-8956
Article publication date: 9 August 2021
Issue publication date: 25 August 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the impact of municipalities’ own resources on their investments‘ expenditure.
Design/methodology/approach
Panel data analysis. A sample of 34 municipalities in Benin. Econometrics tests for the panel data models – estimation of the fixed-effect and random-effect models. Hausman test to identify the best model to explain the impact of the explanatory variables on local investments’ expenditures. Heteroskedasticity, normality and autocorrelation tests.
Findings
The results establish a positive and significant impact of own resources, state transfers and demographic variables on local investments’ expenses.
Research limitations/implications
As an implication, the results show the importance of local resources’ mobilization for the municipalities’ investment capacity building. They also show that the central government transfers continue to play a major place in local investments’ finance, even in a decentralization context. Limitation: Available data do not allow to well evaluate the impact of the electoral variable on municipalities’ investments’ expenditure. This situation does not allow to well analyze the public choice considerations in local authorities’ behaviors.
Practical implications
Local mobilization of financial resources must be encouraged to raise municipalities’ investments’ capacities. Strategies must be developed to reinforce local capacities in local resources mobilization.
Social implications
The results show the importance of local resources in local investments. They show the importance of citizens’ participation in their well-being construction, through local resource mobilization (ex: local fiscality).
Originality/value
Many authors assert in the literature that financial autonomy has a real impact on local development. However, empirically, it was not demonstrated. This paper contributes to correct this lack.
Keywords
Citation
Hounmenou, B.G. and Degbedji, F.D. (2021), "Impact of own resources on municipalities’ investments expenditures in Benin", International Journal of Development Issues, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 393-416. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJDI-04-2021-0070
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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