Abstract
Fiscal asymmetric decentralization is seen as the panacea in solving persistent income inequalities facing developing economies. Despite efforts to finance County governments, about 42% of Kenyan’s 47.6 million people still live below the poverty level. This study evaluates the influence of County fiscal autonomy on household effects in Kenya. Both primary and secondary data, collected from households in 47 county governments and the Commission on Revenue Allocation, respectively. A Sample of 4,813 households was drawn from 96,251 lists of households developed by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Cochran's correction formula was used. The result finds an insignificant negative correlation between county fiscal autonomy and household effects in Kenya. Further studies are recommended with diverse indicators. Findings in this paper are generalizable and a point of reference for policymakers in Kenya.
Highlights
Fiscal autonomy has been viewed as an enabler in the course of long transformations in democratization process of the government and general local government autonomy for a long time
Household survey was adopted and conducted based on a population of 96,251 households drawn from the enumeration areas (EAs) prescribed by NASSEP V methodology as applied in Kenya Household Survey of 2013 by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS)
This study, meets the standard set by the United Nation (UN) Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS) and Kenya's vision 2030 which emphasize on mainstreaming gender sensitivity in all government programs (Un & Sahin, 2012)
Summary
Fiscal autonomy has been viewed as an enabler in the course of long transformations in democratization process of the government and general local government autonomy for a long time. This is because the aspect of local government autonomy is considered a very important topic in public finance literature in developing countries where majority of people live below poverty level, including Kenya. World Bank postulates that 95% of democracies have transferred their fiscal powers from central level to subnational governments. Developed countries that have transferred their fiscal powers include the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada (Xie, Zou, & Davoodi, 1999). World Bank has supported fiscal decentralization trend in developing countries on-premises that fiscal decentralization forms the main part of its poverty reduction programs (Martinez-Vazquez & McNab, 2006)
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