Czech Municipalities Research Articles

Municipalities and Gambling Taxation in the Czech Republic

Hazard is often is considered to be socially undesirable phenomena. Municipalities are the most important regulators of this business. Generally, municipalities have two possibilities how to reduce the negative effects of the gambling business run at their territories: they can prohibit the gambling at all or they can heavily tax the gambling business to minimize all the negative impacts of the hazard. The main goal of this article is to confirm or refute the hypothesis that the new regulation protects the interests of Czech municipalities in the area of hazard. It is obvious that gambling tax is an effective tool (not only) for local self-government and it is a new local tax in the Czech Republic as it fulfills all the conditions I have defined for a local tax.

Local and more local: Impact of size and organization type of settlement units on candidacy

Following current debates on the study of the quality of local government, this article focuses on the effects of settlement unit size and organizational type on candidacy in local elections within the Czech Republic. Municipal size and institutional design are traditionally seen as important factors influencing political participation at the local level. However, citizens in differently defined settlement units included in a municipality are disadvantaged differently by these factors and thus, de-motivated to participate in politics. The unit of analysis within the article is a settlement unit within a municipality. The article uses Poisson regression to estimate the effect of the absolute and relative size of the settlement unit and different organizational types of settlement unit on the relative number of candidates in the unit. The analysis is based on data from 6,124 Czech municipalities over three sets of elections. The results of the analysis show that increasing absolute size and decreasing relative size of settlement unit have negative effects on the number of candidates in units. Also the institutionally disadvantaged units (defined by the location of the municipal office within the settlement unit) produce smaller number of candidates. The results show the importance of structural factors on the traditionally neglected type of political participation (candidacy) within this field. This allows the formulation of recommendations for local government reforms, not only in the Czech Republic, but also for amalgamated municipal systems.

The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Czech Municipal Expenditures

The paper focuses on the links between municipal expenditures and the economic crisis (or the economic cycle). The aim is to improve the predictions of municipal expenditures: current expenditures, capital expenditures and total expenditures. Current research shows that the predictions in times of economic growth are relatively good, but in times of economic crisis, models fail. The focus of this paper is the context of the business cycle in order to implement these macroeconomic contexts into predictive models. The tool for achieving this goal is to find strong connections, including time shifts.

Changes in the Concept of Public Greenery on the Basis of an Analysis of Czech Municipal Financing

The public sector is an inseparable part of every economy. It performs a number of functions such as providing public services, environmental protection, defense, security, education, health, justice and many others. Each institution’s duty is to care for its own property. Public spaces, parks and other public greenery are mostly owned by municipalities. Taking care of public greenery is a part of public spending because the source of money is municipal budgets.

Do EU funds crowd out other public expenditures? Evidence on the additionality principle from the detailed Czech municipalities’ data

ABSTRACTEuropean Union (EU) funds flowing into budgets of public sector organizations of its member states should be additional to their nationally funded expenditures. To investigate this additionality principle systematically, we develop a new empirical method. Our main hypothesis is that some of the EU-funded projects are crowding out national public expenditures. Not being able to reject the hypothesis would be consistent with violating the additionality principle. To test the hypothesis, we examine how EU funding translates into actual spending of relatively comparable municipalities of the Czech Republic. We innovatively match the municipal authorities’ budgetary data on EU-funded expenditure projects with their other, nationally funded, expenditures. We find no systemic crowding out of national public expenditures by EU funds at the level of operational programmes in the Czech municipalities’ data, which is consistent with no evidence of violating the additionality principle. Nonetheless, going down to the municipal level enables us to show how the results can pinpoint individual cases of EU fund’s potential mismanagement in Czech municipalities. Overall, we provide the first evaluation of the additionality principle at the level of individual recipients of EU funds and in doing so we develop a methodological approach potentially applicable to other fund recipients.

Municipal Bankruptcy: Pilot Experience from Czech Republic

<p>Local governments are important parts of public sector and they play significant role in daily life of residents. Their role is usually underestimated in comparison with central government tasks and responsibilities. Residents usually realize the real importance of municipal role when municipalities are in financial problems or even bankruptcy and for these reasons they have to restrict their services. This research paper focuses on the issue of financially distressed Czech municipalities and relevant financial areas or indicators in period prior financial problems of municipalities similar to a bankruptcy. This case study is specific due to the fact that this country misses bankruptcy legislation for municipalities and small total number of already existing cases of municipal bankruptcy due to limited time period of their higher autonomy after 1989. Thus the research sample of comparable cases is very limited and this paper serves as a pilot case study. The research for this paper is focused on the financial management of municipalities from the perspective of negative financial situations and the preceding phase to reveal and achieve certain preliminary findings and experience as a pilot lesson for financial management improvements and further exploration and research.</p>

Does Election of an Additional Female Councilor Increase Women's Candidacy in the Future?

I study the changes in female political participation that occur when an additional female candidate is elected to the local council. To address the endogeneity related to non-random election outcomes I employ a Regression Discontinuity Design. I focus on close competition for the last seat in the Czech municipal (local) elections between a male and a female candidate. I find that the election of an additional female candidate leads to fewer newly participating female candidates in the following elections. The effect is stronger in the municipalities where the marginally elected female candidate was successful.

Strategické plánování jako součást projektové kultury obcí ČR

Strategické plánování jako součást projektové kultury obcí ČR

Membership of Czech municipalities to rural and urban areas: a fuzzy-based approach

Due to the ongoing changes in settlement, it is becoming increasingly difficult to properly define rural and urban areas in Czechia. This delimitation problem has been intensively studied in Europe, including Czechia, for decades, but only the “crisp” rules have been set for this purpose. This is no longer sufficient because of substantial population movements. Our research focused on applying the fuzzy set theory to the delimitation of rural and urban areas and on a subsequent visualization and statistical comparison. This paper focuses on an introduction of such approaches and aims to present the chances of using geocomputational methods in geographical research. The main result is a new methodology that applies the principles of fuzzy approach (fuzzy sets and numbers operations, fuzzy regulation) on socio-economic data to show the transitional character of municipalities. Two ways of fuzzy approach, the easy-to-obtain Łukasiewicz T-norm and the more complex fuzzy regulation, are used in order to demonstrate its advantage over the Boolean logic procedure in the delimitation of rural and urban areas.

Rozpočtové výhledy obcí: Opravdu se využívají?

The objective of the paper is to evaluate the role which the multi-year budget outlook has in the budgetary process and to explore its usage in the Czech municipalities. The analysis is based on the published multi-year budget outlooks in 131 Czech towns with more than 10 thousand inhabitants and two case studies. Compilation of the multi-year budget outlook in the Czech Republic is compulsory and its legal regulation allows a broad range of existing practice. Only about a half of the towns publishes a valid multi-year budget outlook on the Internet. The time span of the documents is evenly distributed between two to five years and the detail differs considerably. While four towns prepare the whole budget in a multiannual perspective, about a third of the multi-year budget outlooks contains only the major types of revenue and expenditure. More than one quarter of the published multi-year budget outlooks is prepared by external consultants. The lack of regular update and high uncertainty about future revenue significantly limit the information value of the document.

Municipal Tax Autonomy and Tax Mimicking in Czech Municipalities

Property tax autonomy of the Czech municipalities is quite narrow and to great extent unused. Perceived political costs of its usage are high and only 8% of municipalities utilized the possibility to increase the tax rates through so called local coefficient.
 Using the binary logit model and a full sample and two subsamples of Czech municipalities in 2014 the existence of tax mimicking is confirmed regardless the subsample of municipalities considered or the definition of neighbors applied. The likelihood to increase the local coefficient is to some extent influenced by the composition of the municipal council and local demographic, geographic and fiscal situation. However, the overall capacity of the model to indicate municipalities which apply local coefficient is low and suggests that there are many other or different situations or factors which result in application of local coefficient.

Budget accuracy in Czech municipalities and the determinants of tax revenue forecasting errors

This paper evaluates the accuracy of municipal budgets and their major components and explores the factors influencing tax revenue forecasting errors in municipalities with extended scope between 2002 and 2011 using the generalised method of moments. Tax forecasting errors are influenced by the economic situation and structure of tax revenue. Higher underestimation is observed in municipalities with incremental revenue forecasting. The impact of political factors is quite strong: municipalities with more fragmented municipal councils approve more optimistic tax revenue forecasts and forecasts are more optimistic in election years.

Size and Local Democracy: the Case of Czech Municipal Representatives

The municipal structure of the Czech Republic experienced a wave of fragmentation after the fall of the communist regime. As a result, most Czech municipalities today have populations of only a few hundred inhabitants. This situation creates specific conditions for the democratic functioning of local representative bodies. In this paper we focus on two features of Czech local government. First, we deal with electoral competitiveness in Czech municipalities; second, we analyse councillors' accountability to voters, their readiness to stand for re-election and their electoral success in successive elections. Based on an analysis of data on individual candidates and elected councillors in four successive terms, we demonstrate that the willingness to stand for election and re-election does not decrease over time; however, the choice among different candidates is limited in the smallest municipalities. Thus, the data show a reduced willingness to stand for re-election and an extraordinarily high chance of re-election in smaller municipalities. This finding weakens the general assumption about higher accountability of elected officials in small municipalities. On a more general level, we conclude that Czech local government has some features of small political systems with infrequent occurrence of major election conflicts.

TO THE PROBLEMS OF REVITALIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACES IN EASTERN BLOC HOUSING ESTATES

The article is a contribution to the discussion about the revitalizations of over-dimensioned and characterless public spaces in housing estates areas in the Eastern Bloc. The Central Park in Southern Town I – the largest housing estate in Prague – is a significant example of such public space. The article presents the main results of two different but complementary analysis of the Central Park. Analysis “from bellow” (the user's perspective) is based on the results of anthropological research in the area. Analysis “from above” is based on personal experience of an urban planner. According to the authors only the triangulation of anthropological and architectural/urban planning methods of reading place allows to come near to complex understanding of place, its character and identity. The authors point out the importance of participation of the users in the revitalizations, which is an important condition of the broad acceptance of the result. Most of the Czech municipalities are still mistrustful of participatory processes. That brings many unnecessary problems.

Yardstick Competition in case of the Czech Property Tax

AbstractIntroduction of the local coefficient in the property tax law since 2009 gave a significant tax authority to Czech municipalities; on average they can up to quadruple their property tax revenue which means increasing their total revenue by more than 10%. Czech municipalities appeared very cautious when exercising this new autonomy and only less than 8% of them applied the local coefficient in 2013.The theory of yardstick competition offers one of the possible explanations of this reluctance: Voters do not vote for politicians who increase taxes unless the politicians in the neighbouring jurisdictions increase taxes as well. So municipal politicians are carefully observing what others do and approve the local coefficient with prudence.The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the usage of the local coefficient with special regard to spatial distribution and impacts on re-election and to verify the existence of the yardstick competition among Czech municipalities in case of the property tax.The results of the difference of means test using data for 206 municipalities with extended scope comply with this theory: (1) politicians who applied local coefficient in 2010 got re-elected in a significantly lesser number of municipalities than those who did not, and (2) in all years analyzed, municipalities applying local coefficient are surrounded by a higher share of municipalities with local coefficient than municipalities without it.

Daňová pravomoc obcí u daně z nemovitostí v České republice a na Slovensku

The objectives of the paper are to compare the development of the legally granted municipal autonomy regarding the property tax in the Czech Republic and Slovakia since 1993 and its real implementation in 2011 and to evaluate the impacts of the municipal autonomy regulation on municipal behaviour. The comparison is based on a legal analysis of the versions of the law on property tax pertaining in the individual years 1993-2012 in both the countries and a comparison of the tax rates actually implemented in 2011 in the Czech and Slovak district towns. Czech municipalities can influence the tax rates through three types of coefficients which enforce quite an uniform approach to the entire territory of the municipality as well as different types of property. In contrast, the autonomy of Slovak municipalities has increased gradually and, since the introduction of the new law in 2005, it has seen only minimal limitations. The average tax rates are higher in Slovakia with the exception of residential houses and apartments. The highest differences appear in the case of property used for industry and other entrepreneurial activities. The results obtained suggest that in both the systems municipalities attempt to shift the tax burden from the residents to other entities and that the link between the property tax and the local service benefits is weakened.

Local Government Efficiency: Evidence from the Czech Municipalities

We measure cost efficiency of 202 Czech municipalities of extended scope in period 2003-2008. The study is the first application of overall efficiency measurement of the local governments in the new EU member states, and the second in post-communist countries. We measure government efficiency through established quantitative and qualitative indicators of the provision of education, cultural facilities, infrastructure and other local services. First, we employ non-parametric approach of the data envelopment analysis and adjust the efficiency scores by bootstrapping. Second, we employ the stochastic frontier analysis and control for effects of various demographic, economic, and political variables. We compare scores under our preferred specification, i.e. pseudo-translog time-variant stochastic-frontier analysis with determinants, with alternative scores. The determinants that robustly increase inefficiency are population size, distance to the regional center, share of university-educated citizens, capital expenditures, subsidies per capita, and the share of self-generated revenues. Concerning political variables, increase in party concentration and the voters' involvement increases efficiency, and local council with a lower share of left-wing representatives also tend to be more efficient. We interpret determinants both as indicators of slack, non-discretionary inputs, and unobservable outputs. The analysis is conducted also for the period 1994-1996, where political variables appear to influence inefficiency in a structurally different way. From comparison of the two periods, we obtain that small municipalities improve efficiency significantly more that large municipalities.

Trends of E-government in Czech Municipal and Regional Self-Government

The paper summarizes trends of e-government projects of Czech territorial self-governments (municipalities and regions). The summary is based on secondary data related to philosophy and practice of projects which were awarded or medialized as top projects in three Czech national e-government awards in the period 2005 - 2010.

Quality Criteria of Czech Municipal Offices: Views of Their Employees

Quality Criteria of Czech Municipal Offices: Views of Their Employees

Financial Aspects of the Autonomy of Czech Municipalities in the Attitudes of Political Actors

The paper herein presents a summary of research targeting the attitudes of mayors of Czech municipalities towards the financing of municipalities and the submitted legislative determination of taxes. Data reflect expert interviews with a representative sample of nine municipalities in Central Bohemian region. The research was originally incorporated into the doctoral thesis by Ilona Kruntorádová accomplished at the Institute of Political Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague; it is contextualized in the paper with political debates about the new rules concerning the funding of municipalities. Such rules create divisions among the municipalities as well as the parties within the Nečas coalition government. The main research findings underline the prevailing lack of funds facilitating the development of small municipalities, mediation of the interests of municipalities through personal contacts rather than special interest associations, and deeper divisions between small municipalities and large cities. The research herein should primarily serve as a pre-research for larger inquiries involving a broader sample of municipalities throughout the Czech Republic.