Local Government Efficiency Research Articles

Research on the Impact and Spillover Effect of Green Agricultural Reform Policy Pilot on Governmental Environmental Protection Behaviors Based on Quasi-Natural Experiments of China’s Two Provinces from 2012 to 2020

The green agricultural reform policy pilot embraces the development trend of the times. The green agricultural policy pilot implemented in China’s Zhejiang Province is an attempt to find a balance between environmental protection and economic development in order to achieve the national “dual carbon” goals. Have the goals been achieved? Zhejiang Province is the national pilot zone of green agricultural development. Jiangsu Province is notably homogeneous with Zhejiang Province but has not been included in the pilot policy. Based on the comparative studies of the two provinces with quasi-natural experiment logic, this paper analyzes the mechanism of the national green agricultural pilot zone policy acting on the environmental protection behavior of local governments and the actual effect of such policy using the data of 22 cities in both provinces from 2012 and 2020 as the panel data and relying on the DID model. According to the research findings, the national green agricultural development pilot zone policy has significantly increased the investment of local governments in environmental protection in Zhejiang Province where the policy has been fully implemented, and the negative spillover effect has reduced the economic governance efficiency of local governments in the short term. However, the investment of local governments in Jiangsu Province where the policy has not been fully implemented has not increased significantly and the economic governance efficiency has not reduced significantly. Double robustness tests based on the parallel trend test and DID-PSM (Differences-In-Differences and Propensity Score Matching) have verified the reliability of the research findings. Both Zhejiang and Jiangsu are provinces with developed industrial economies. Agriculture only accounts for a small proportion of their GDP. In addition, there is a natural conflict between green agriculture and industrial manufacturing in these two provinces. However, for those provinces dominated by agriculture or tourism, the effect of such green agricultural development policy may be different, which requires follow-up deeper research in an effort to thoroughly learn about the impact of agricultural policy pilot on local environmental protection behaviors, especially economic performance.

Sustainable budgeting and financial balance: Which lever will you pull?

During the past few decades, countries have experienced a remarkable increase in local expenditure levels to address rising local needs. However, the limited availability of financial resources, exacerbated first by the 2008 financial crisis and then by Covid19 crisis, has called for budget restrictions usually imposed by higher levels of government. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of a balance budget rule enforcement, exploring its effect on the local government cost efficiency and, in particular, considering the complex trade-off between efficiency and equity. Specifically, our identification strategy considers the exogenous introduction of a new budget balance rule that requires local governments to respect both an annual and a longer-term equilibrium criterion. The difference-in-differences analysis builds on a rich panel dataset covering all the public functions. We find that, on average, the budget rule enforcement exerted a positive effect on local government efficiency.

Model for the development of design solutions in the framework of strategic planning for the development of rural areas

The authors present a model for analyzing the current state of rural areas and developing design solutions for strategic development. Based on the analysis of the methods used in the course of strategic planning, the authors highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the methods of analysis used. The essential characteristics of the model are revealed from the standpoint of strategic planning and actions of local governments. The purpose of the study is to offer a unified model for effective strategic planning for the development of rural areas, which increases the efficiency of local governments. The proposed indicators and steps of step-by-step strategic planning are revealed in a meaningful way, the need to take them into account in strategic planning is substantiated.

Peranan Kepemimpinan Perempuan dan Motivasi Kerja dalam Meningkatkan Kinerja Pemerintahan Desa

Women have more challenges when they want to take part in village governance, especially from the point of view of those whose cultural norms have not been adhered to. To achieve this, the main objective of this study is to identify and examine the factors that contribute to effective village governance. by identifying the contribution of the female village head as a leader and providing incentives for village officials to carry out their duties. A quantitative approach was taken for this investigation to ensure reliable findings. Observations, questionnaires, validation tests, and reliability tests are used in gathering information.
 In this investigation, surveys were distributed using Google forms, providing primary data. Researchers in this study selected participants randomly, not by chance. from the target group (village heads and other village officials) totaling 44 participants. Primary data were collected through well-designed surveys and trials, then multiple regression analysis was used to describe the results.
 This study found that women's leadership styles can have a good and large impact on the efficiency of local government in villages. Meanwhile, the efficiency of village administration increased slightly when workers were encouraged to do their best. Both the leadership style and work motivation of women have a positive and significant impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of village government, so that it can better serve local communities.

Regional split and local government spending efficiency in Indonesia

The research objectives are to (1) measure the efficiency of local governments in every province in Indonesia and (2) analyse the impact of regional splitting, GRDP per capita, population density, and fiscal capacity on the efficiency of local governments. This study employed per capita personnel spending, per capita spending on goods and services, and per capita capital spending. The output used in the dataset is the human development index. The first objective (local government efficiency) is measured by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), with VRS and an output-oriented model. DMUs are 34 provinces from 2013-to 2018. The second objective (the impact of regional splitting, GRDP per capita, population density, and fiscal capacity on efficiency) is measured by panel data regression with a random effect model. Results show that the always efficient provinces for 2013-2018 were Jakarta, Yogyakarta, and Banten. The study revealed 29 inefficient provinces in 2013, and this number increased to 31 inefficient provinces in 2018. Another finding is that regional splitting, GRDP per capita, population density, and fiscal capacity significantly impact local governments' efficiency. As inefficient provinces need to improve their efficiency, this study recommends that local governments focus on these four independent variables to strengthen their efficiency.

Influence of Economic Openness on Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from China’s Belt and Road Initiative

The impact of international trade and export-oriented policies on economic growth has been an important topic. Based on an evaluation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), this study provides new evidence of the positive causal link between increasing openness and long-term economic growth. Specifically, this study evaluates the BRI’s impact on 18 key provinces in China, with a focus on total factor productivity (TFP). Utilizing a panel dataset of 284 prefectural-level cities from 2007 to 2018, we examine the causal relationship between the BRI and TFP in a difference-in-differences framework. We apply the five-pronged approach to the BRI to explore the impact mechanism and examine heterogeneity in the effect in terms of geographic location and local government efficiency. We find that the BRI significantly promotes TFP in key provinces; it increases TFP through unimpeded trade, infrastructure connectivity, technical efficiency, and technological progress. The BRI promotes TFP in key coastal provinces belonging to the Maritime Silk Road while having a relatively limited impact on the other key provinces belonging to the Silk Road Economic Belt. This study has policy implications for promoting the BRI in China. It recommends that the government collaborates with firms and financial institutions in the construction of infrastructure.

Local governments’ efficiency and its heterogeneity – empirical evidence from a stochastic frontier analysis of Italian municipalities 2010-2018

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the efficiency of Italian local governments using Stochastic Frontier Analysis for the years 2010–2018. As a dependent variable of the cost function, we consider the total current expenditure for producing six ‘essential’ local public services: education (ancillary services), waste management, general administration, local police, public roads and planning, and social services. As outputs, we employ indicators for each of the six services in the multi-output cost function. In an alternative model specification, we use a composite indicator for the total output volume. Thus, we estimate a global efficiency score for each local government, for each year. The findings reveal that the total expenditure declined over time, more than proportionally than the contraction of output produced. Therefore, the global efficiency of Italian municipalities is estimated to be higher in 2018 than it was in 2010. Moreover, there is evidence of substantial scale economies and congestion effects, with municipalities with around 10,000 inhabitants being more efficient than their smaller and larger counterparts. Lastly, on average, local governments are more efficient in providing public services in the Northern regions than in the Southern ones, although efficiency does not decline monotonically moving South.

Estimation of prefecture-level local government efficiency in China and policy implications for efficiency improvement

This article is the first to study on prefecture-level local government efficiency in China. First part of this article is estimating the efficiency of 277 prefecture-level local governments in China with output-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and the second part is explaining why those local governments receive such efficiency scores and discussing about the policy implications, where censored linear regression model is utilized. As a result, 277 prefectures are estimated to only produce 83% of their possible outputs with given inputs on average when scale inefficiency factors are excluded. And mostly decreasing return to scale inefficiency approximately accounts for half of overall inefficiency. At last, we suggest that the Chinese government should invest more expenditure on the basic education (primary school to high school) and it is recommended to increase the period of compulsory education to 12 years. And decentralization is an important approach to improve local government efficiency by analyzing the performance disparity of special economic zone (SEZ) prefectures.

How multiple interactions between policy instruments and the policy environment affect environmental governance efficiency

Few studies explored the interaction effect between policy instruments and the policy environment on environmental governance. Based on policy instrument theory, this paper conducts fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the combined effect of policy instruments and the policy environment on the environmental governance efficiency of local governance. This study found four effective configurations of local government environmental governance, which can be summarized as the mandatory mode and the cooperative mode, and three inefficient configurations that can be summarized as the out-of-control mode. The results show that the regions adopting the mandatory mode are economically underdeveloped, while the regions using the cooperative mode are developed. Besides, local government competition leads to the softening of policy instruments, while government-enterprise collusion exacerbates the failure of environmental policy instruments. This paper summarizes the effective modes and reveals the reasons for the low efficiency of local government environmental governance in China. The conclusions provide not only empirical evidence for the study of policy instrument theory but also beneficial insights for the selection of environmental policy instruments and environmental governance practice.

What Motivates Local Governments to Be Efficient? Evidence from Philippine Cities

This study sought to identify the drivers of local government efficiency by investigating three key motivations: internal capacity, rewards for good performance, and compliance with the national government. This paper studied the business registration efficiency cases of 141 highly urbanized and component cities in the Philippines using the cities and municipalities competitiveness index dataset from 2017 to 2019. It was found that capacity-related factors are the most influential in motivating Philippine cities to be more efficient in their business registration processes. Having a higher institutional capacity, higher public service experiences, and good technology infrastructure contribute immensely to better service delivery. Compliance with the national government’s directions on public service standards also positively influences efficiency. In addition, it was confirmed that these factors may appear differently, depending on cities’ size statuses. Other policy implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Why Allow Local Elections? Mobilization, Manipulation, and the Abolition of Russian Mayoral Elections

Abstract Local executives in electoral authoritarian regimes can perform important regime-sustaining functions, including by delivering votes to the ruling party at election-time. Furthermore, when local executives are themselves elected, regimes can benefit from improved legitimacy and efficiency in local government. Yet elected local executives can create principal-agent problems and increase the risk that opposition groups gain office. How do authoritarian governments manage this tension? Prior research on Russia shows that elections are used to co-opt strong local mayors, while weak mayors are replaced with appointed managers. This paper argues that strong mayors are more likely to see elections canceled if their local machine is not delivering manufactured electoral support to the national party, while weak mayors are unlikely to be targeted. This hypothesis is supported using data from 207 Russian cities, including election-forensic estimates of election manipulation. The findings improve our understanding of cooptation of local leaders in electoral authoritarian regimes.

AN EXAMINATION OF FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION IN KAZAKHSTAN

Fiscal decentralization is said to offer a number of benefits for public sector governance, including economic growth, accountability, and responsiveness of government officials to local demands and needs. Increased autonomy over revenues and expenditures through separation of control over different tax bases between the central and regional government has the potential to promote the efficiency and accountability of local governance. Kazakhstan, been a unitary state has all revenues collection and allocation decisions made by the central government. Allocations to the regions are made based on certain criteria, such as size, demography, importance of the region to the national economy, etc. This means that regional and local governments have little incentives to devise means that would generate internal revenues. This can give local officials a convenient scapegoat for their shortcomings in providing public services, as they could easily pass the blame to the central government. The aim of this paper is to examine how granting more accountability and revenue-generating authority to Kazakhstan’s regions would improve public service delivery, and have an aggregate macroeconomic performance and growth for the country as a whole. The methodology is based on the use of secondary sources (such as government reports, policy documents, etc.). The paper contributes to the body of knowledge by cautioning that fiscal decentralization without accountability to the local populace limits the benefit of responsiveness to local needs, while highlighting the importance of local fiscal autonomy on fiscal performance, amongst others.

Efficiency Comparison of Pro-Growth Poverty Reduction Spending before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Regional Governments in Indonesia

During the COVID-19 pandemic, all regions in Indonesia have had negative economic growth. It also increased the poverty rate in the country. The government must allocate pro-growth and poverty reduction programs to maintain economic growth and simultaneously reduce poverty. This study aims to measure the relative efficiency of pro-growth poverty reduction spending of local governments in seven regions in Indonesia. This study compares the efficiency scores before and during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2015 to 2019 and 2020. The inputs are five types of government spending: education, health, economic, social protection, and infrastructure. The outputs are economic growth and poverty reduction. Data envelopment analysis with an output-oriented model and a return to scale variable approach is applied. The results show that the highest average local government efficiency score was in Kalimantan, with the lowest being in Sulawesi. The efficiency scores of local governments in the COVID-19 pandemic differ between regions: it remained stable in Kalimantan, increased in Java-Bali, Sumatra, and Sulawesi, and experienced a decline in Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and Papua. The study concludes that economic growth and poverty reduction can simultaneously measure government efficiency. To be relatively efficient, local governments need to consider allocating pro-growth poverty reduction spending to improve the conditions of both outputs.

DEVELOPMENT OF E-GOVERNMENT UNDER CONDITIONS OF DIGITALIZATION

The article analyzes the scientific positions on the development of e-government in the context of digitalization. It is argued that e-government is an important factor in the activities of the modern state and increasingly absorbs into people's lives. Based on the analysis of theoretical approaches to understanding the concept of "e-government", it is determined that e-government is a form of public administration that promotes openness, efficiency and transparency of both public authorities and local governments through the use of information telecommunication technologies aimed at meeting the needs of citizens. Attention is paid to the essence of digitalization as a driving force of innovation management. It is concluded that e-government in digitalization provides an opportunity to change approaches to the nature of public authorities, make their activities more transparent and public, and proposed a number of measures to develop e-government in digitalization.

지방정부의 성과추적평가 프레임 구성과 효과성 검증

This paper measured the efficiency of autonomous integration Chang-won city and local government in Gyeong-nam using the DEA-CCR and BCC indices. As input variables for performance measurement, the number of civil servants, appropriation budget, and area under jurisdiction were used. Output variables include local tax collection, sewage and water supply rates, road pavement rates, national basic livelihood recipients, garbage disposal, and civil complaint solving performance. The research results are presented as follows. First, the efficiency of integrated Changwon City by competency decreased overall after the integration. Second, the productivity of Jinhae and Masan after integration is low. This means that Changwon's integration performance is high, but other cities are not. Third, compared to other regions of Gyeongnam, Changwon City's capabilities are excellent. But, relative to the size of the city, autonomous capacity is inefficient by 8.1%. Autonomy capacity is highly dependent on the amount of local tax revenue. Efforts are needed to increase tax revenue in the future. In the end, in order for the integrated Changwon City to show the integrated effect, it is necessary to make efforts to strengthen its capabilities.

Municipal tax restrictions and economic efficiency: an analysis of Australian local councils

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the impact of rate capping policy on local council efficiency. It also examines a set of exogenous factors associated with local government efficiency. A semi-parametric framework based on data envelopment analysis is applied to construct an efficient frontier for Victorian local governments. Findings indicate that rate capping policy had no significant effect on the overall economic efficiency of Victorian local governments. Furthermore, the policy appears to have an adverse effect on the efficiency of metropolitan councils during the study period. The heterogeneity of local governments needs to be considered when setting rate caps.

DOES PERSISTENT COST INEFFICIENCY EXIST? A MUNICIPAL-LEVEL ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE IN VICTORIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

While a voluminous empirical literature has investigated cost efficiency in local government, until recently no effort has been invested in decomposing municipal performance into its persistent efficiency and transient efficiency components. In this paper, we estimate persistent and transient cost efficiency that might be attributed to managerial and environmental factors in the Victorian state local government system in Australia using stochastic frontier analysis over the period from 2014/2015 to 2018/2019. In addition, we seek to contribute to the empirical literature on local government performance by estimating differences in cost efficiency between urban and rural councils and the relationship between the transient cost efficiency and the overall cost performance of Victorian local councils. We find that the overall cost efficiency (OCE) of local councils is highly correlated with transient (short term) cost efficiency and that urban councils are more cost-efficient than their rural counterparts. Various public policy implications are then considered.

Islamic Cooperative Societies and the Efficiency of Financial Intermediation in Ife East Local Government, Osun State, Nigeria

The study investigated the relationship between cooperative societies and financial intermediation efficiency in Ife east local government, Osun State, Nigeria. The broad objective of this study is to examine the extent at which cooperative societies in Ife East Local Government achieved their financial intermediation role. The specific objectives are to examine the relationship between the total deposit and total credit of Munislam Welfare Fund cooperative society and to investigate the relationship between the total deposit and the total credit of Al-Irshad welfare fund cooperative society.The study used regression analysis method to achieve the stated objective. The data for this study was obtained from the annual financial report of the selected cooperative societies in Ife East Local Government, Osun state, Nigeria. It was revealed in Credit supply equation I that there was a positive correlation and significant relationship between the total deposit and total credit of Munislam Welfare Fund cooperative society. It was also discovered in Credit supply equation II that there was a positive correlation and significant relationship between the total deposit and total credit of Al-Irshad welfare fund cooperative society. The study recommends that Cooperative Societies should foster a higher level of liquidity in order to increase its ability to grant loans and advances to their members for productive purpose. The study also recommends that Cooperative societies should effectively utilize mobilized deposit in order to ensure the efficiency of financial intermediation.

Communication Efficiency of Local Governments in China: Measurements and Influencing Factors in Public Emergencies

Communication Efficiency of Local Governments in China: Measurements and Influencing Factors in Public Emergencies

Impact of Social Capital on Environmental Governance Efficiency—Behavior of Guangdong, China

The main purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of social capital level on environmental governance efficiency in economically developed areas. We choose China’s richest province Guangdong. Compared with other Chinese provinces, Guangdong’s local governments are in better fiscal status, and they can allocate environmental spending in line with the trend of gross domestic product per capita. We want to observe the important factors related to social cognition other than capital investment to gain a more profound influence on the efficiency of local environmental governance. This article assumes that the degree of local social capital will have a great positive impact on the efficiency of regional environmental governance. Super-efficiency slacks-based measure method of data envelopment analysis is adopted to calculate the environmental governance efficiency by considering the expected output and the nonexpected output. Then, short-panel regression was used to analyze the relationship between social capital and environmental governance efficiency. Through an empirical analysis of urban panel data of Guangdong province from 2001 to 2019, it is found that the degree of social capital does have a significant positive impact on the efficiency of local environmental governance. After the research conclusion, we propose some policy suggestions to local governments.