A Economia política de gastos públicos municipais no Brasil

Abstract

Through the New Political Economics‟ theoretical structure this paper intends to explore how certain aspects of Brazilian municipalities‟ politics affect economic variables. Starting with a database consisting of 5594 cities in the year of 2005, cross-section econometric models are estimated by SUR (Aitken‟s GLS) in order to explain how expenditures on public goods, non-compensated transfers to people and budget deficits behave. As for the regressors, the mayor‟s ideology and possible ideological alignments between Executive and Legislative powers in the city level and/or between city and state Executives are tested. By doing so, not only Right and Left incumbents‟ expenditure patterns are distinguished, but also the influence of ideological convergence between Powers and between government levels. Literature shows that ideology is indeed significant, since bigger expenditures are associated with Left governments. In general, ideological convergence between government levels is shown to reduce total expenditures. The last variable tested – alignment between Powers – has no mention in any of the papers consulted. The results obtained here confirm those previously mentioned – especially the alignment between government levels –. Results concerning the alignment between Powers show that, instead of diminishing management costs, it just spreads resources.