Replication data for: Tax Me, but Spend Wisely? Sources of Public Finance and Government Accountability

Name: Replication data for: Tax Me, but Spend Wisely? Sources of Public Finance and Government Accountability
Published: Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2017
License: This work is licensed under an Other license created by the data depositor. Please refer to the LICENSE file, which should be located alongside the project data and documentation.
Keywords: Surveys and administrative data

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
data_AEJ2015_0509			10/20/2021 03:15:PM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	10/12/2019 09:14:AM

Project Citation:

Gadenne, Lucie. Replication data for: Tax Me, but Spend Wisely? Sources of Public Finance and Government Accountability. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2017. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E113666V1

Project Description

Summary: Existing evidence suggests that extra grant revenues lead to little improvements in public services in developing countries--but would governments spend tax revenues differently? This paper considers a program that invests in the tax capacity of Brazilian municipalities. Using variations in the timing of program uptake, I find that it raises local tax revenues and that the increase in taxes is used to improve both the quantity and quality of municipal education infrastructure. In contrast, increases in grants over which municipalities have the same discretion as taxes have no impact on any measure of local public infrastructure. These results suggest that the way governments are financed matters: governments spend increases in tax revenues more toward expenditures that benefit citizens than increases in grant revenues.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Surveys and administrative data

JEL Classification:
      H71 State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
      H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
      H76 State and Local Government: Other Expenditure Categories
      I21 Analysis of Education
      I22 Educational Finance; Financial Aid
      O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
      R51 Finance in Urban and Rural Economies

Geographic Coverage: Brazil

Time Period(s): 1/1/1998 – 1/1/2011

Universe: All municipalities

Data Type(s): survey data; administrative records data

Collection Notes: See https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b4pnyslMZ_A8fSWekt2pUiGRG2nYt-bl/view

Methodology

Data Source: See https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b4pnyslMZ_A8fSWekt2pUiGRG2nYt-bl/view

Unit(s) of Observation: Municipality (local government),

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V1 [2019-10-12]

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