OECD Economics Department Working Papers

ISSN :
1815-1973 (online)
DOI :
10.1787/18151973
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Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.
 

Does Fiscal Decentralisation Strengthen Social Capital?

Cross-Country Evidence and the Experiences of Brazil and Indonesia You or your institution have access to this content

Authors:
Luiz de Mello
Publication Date
06 Dec 2010
Bibliographic information
No.:
825
Pages
24
DOI
10.1787/5km347ntdnxn-en

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This paper tests the hypothesis that, by giving people more voice in the government decision-making process, fiscal decentralisation fosters social capital, measured in terms of interpersonal trust. Empirical evidence based on World Values Survey data and seemingly unrelated probit estimations for a cross-section of countries suggests that people living in federal/decentralised countries find it more important to have voice in government decisions than their counterparts living in unitary/centralised countries. Pro-voice attitudes are, in turn, associated with greater social capital. The cross-country estimations are complemented by country-specific regressions for Brazil and Indonesia on account of these countries. experiences with fiscal decentralisation. The results show that the cohorts of individuals that have been exposed to decentralisation are in general more pro-voice (and trustful of strangers in the case of Brazil) than their counterparts that have not been exposed to decentralisation. These findings are not driven by the effects of political liberalisation on people.s attitudes towards the importance of having voice in government decisions and interpersonal trust.
Keywords:
federalism, Indonesia, Brazil, decentralisation, social capital
JEL Classification:
  • H11: Public Economics / Structure and Scope of Government / Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government
  • H30: Public Economics / Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents / General
  • H77: Public Economics / State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations / Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism; Secession