Capital Expenditures of Local Self Governments in Crisis

Abstract

Despite the fiscal decentralization, local self-governments in Slovak and Czech Republic are dependent on state budget revenues and are therefore very sensitive and responsive to any changes at the national level. The financial crisis, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, have significantly affected the financial management of local self-governments. Most articles deal with the impact of crises on the current budget of municipalities. The aim of the paper is to analyze capital expenditures in two crisis periods - the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic at the level of local self-governments in Slovak and Czech Republic. From the point of view of the financial crisis, we analyze time period 2007-2012 and from the point of view of the COVID-19 pandemic, we analyze the period 2017-2020. As a base we used the data from the evaluation of the results of budget management of municipalities in Slovak Republic and data from Slovak and Czech Statistical Office. The analysis showed that the financial crisis did not have a significant impact on municipal capital expenditures, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused them to decline. In terms of structure, the biggest share was accounted for by capital expenditures associated with investment purchases (Slovak Republic on average 94%, Czech Republic 88%).