이화여자대학교

초록/요약

This study examined the impact of enhancing fiscal transparency on intergovernmental resource allocation. To do so, it investigated whether the revision of the Local Subsidy Act of 2009 and the disclosure of allocation information, focusing on the allocation of Special Revenue Sharing (SRS), brought about changes in the determinants of intergovernmental resource allocation. The SRS had faced criticism for having been arbitrarily distributed in the absence of reasonable allocation criteria. For this reason, efforts were made to enhance fiscal transparency through the 2009 revision of the Local Subsidy Act and the disclosure of allocation information. For empirical analysis, this study examined the changes in the mechanism of intergovernmental resource allocation before and after 2009 when fiscal transparency was enhanced. The analysis included 224 local governments, and a fixed effect model was used to analyze panel data of 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019. During this period, the amount of SRS allocated to each local government was used as the dependent variable, while political and socio-economic factors of each local government were employed as independent variables in the analytical model. As political factors this study used the number of terms, political parties, committee affiliations of members of National Assembly and the political party, reelection status, hometown, and approval rating of the heads of local governments. Fiscal self-reliance, population, the proportion of elderly population, and per capita property tax burden were used as socio-economic factors. The analysis results showed that after the enhancement of fiscal transparency in 2009, the role of local government heads decreased, while the role of members of National Assembly strengthened in intergovernmental resource allocation. It also revealed that a wider range of socio-economic factors were considered in resource allocation. In conclusion, while fiscal transparency did not exclude political influence from intergovernmental resource allocation, it empirically confirmed that socio-economic factors representing the financial demands of local governments were being considered more actively.