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Does fiscal decentralization affect local governments' strategic behaviours? Evidence from South Korea

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  • Soyoung Park
  • Sungchan Kim

Abstract

Local governments tend to show strategic behaviours when making their spending decisions. However, few studies have examined strategic behaviours when promoting fiscal decentralization. Thus, this study empirically examines the presence of strategic interactions in expenditure decisions in South Korea as well as how fiscal decentralization affects those interactions, using a panel data set from 2010 to 2017. The results demonstrate that a local government mimics other governments' spending when those governments' residents share similar age demographics. Moreover, local governments in South Korea engage in strategic interactions as their expenditure side becomes more decentralized. However, local governments tend to demonstrate less isomorphic behaviour in welfare spending decisions when they have higher revenue decentralization. This is because local governments have no motive to emulate other welfare policies, as the central government delegates the provision of social services to local governments by providing grants with strings attached.

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  • Soyoung Park & Sungchan Kim, 2023. "Does fiscal decentralization affect local governments' strategic behaviours? Evidence from South Korea," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 124-141, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:pacecr:v:28:y:2023:i:1:p:124-141
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-0106.12388
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