Fiscal education and public efficiency: a study of its relations based on municipal resource management

Abstract

In this study, the theme fiscal accounting is addressed as a variable that influences the municipal public efficiency, measured through the relation between expenses on governmental functions and own tax revenues. The foundations of fiscal education are presented, based on the premises indicated by the School of Fiscal Management and the Theory of Tax Education (Sainz de Bujanda, 1967), associated with the pedagogical foundations recommended by Saviani (1980; 2008) and Chaves (2007). In methodological terms, in this study, the measuring of the citizens’ level of fiscal education was proposed by means of an electronic questionnaire, applied to a sample of 1,804 respondents. The municipal data were obtained from the database Finanças Brasil – Finbra, directly collected from the website of the Brazilian Secretary of the Treasury, and comprise information on the years 2004 till 2010. The final sample was defined for the efficiency analysis of 689 cities. Initially, the data were treated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and factorial analysis with a view to defining the variables that permitted the application of the multiple regression analysis. Based on the results, the main research hypothesis that the citizens’ fiscal education level serves as an instrument of social control that influences the efficiency of public resource management and enhances the levels of transparency and accountability in the municipal public administration. Studies are recommended to confirm the findings, involving other variables not addressed in the study, such as social indicators, and using other groups the research did not reach.

Keywords

• Educação Fiscal
• Eficiência Pública
• Gestão de Recursos