What determines the fiscal success at a local level? The case of Croatian local government units

Abstract

The paper investigates the relationship between Croatian local government budget outturns (i.e., fiscal success) and a chosen set of economic and non-economic determinants. The determinants are divided into four groups: (i) economic, (ii) political, (iii) transparency and (iv) socio-historical. Three main goals are set in the paper. The first is to determine whether there are differences in fiscal success at the different levels of administrative governance (counties, cities and municipalities) in Croatia. Subsequently, the second goal is determining whether such differences are of an economic or non-economic origin and third, whether such differences are robust, meaning do they persist at all three administrative levels. If the differences are not persistent, the question remains as towards what determinants (economic or non-economic) do they diverge. The analysis is conducted on the entire population, i.e. 428 municipalities, 128 cities and 20 counties for the period 2012–2014. Panel data and regression analysis are applied to study the differences and signs of independent variables. The obtained results indicate that differences between local government units in Croatia stem are of an economic and political origin.