Presidents and cabinetsthe political determinants of fiscal behavior in Latin America

Resumo

What political factors drive fiscal behavior in Latin America's presidential democracies? This work seeks to identify the political determinants of the level of public spending and the primary balance of ten democratic regimes in Latin America between 1980 and 1998. We consider, besides the influence of traditional variables such as the government's ideological orientation and electoral cycle, the impact of other institutional and political aspects, such as the legislative strength of the president, ministerial stability, and the degree of centralization of budget institutions. Methodologically, the work is based on a pooled cross-section-time-series data analysis of 132 observations. Our main findings are that presidents supported by a strong party and leading a stable team of ministers-and ones more to the right on the political spectrum-had a negative impact on public spending and a positive effect on fiscal balance, and that the electoral cycle deteriorates the latter.

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Artigo científico

Ano

2004

Instituição

Transaction Period Consortium

Fonte

Repositório da FGV

Idioma

Inglês

Acesso

Acesso restrito

DOI

10.1007/BF02686313

Identificador

oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/23052

Temas

EconomiaFinanças Públicas

Palavras-chave

Cross-section dataMacroeconomic policyBudget deficitsDemocraciesInstitutionsPerformanceParliamentaryGovernmentGastos públicosEconomiaProduto interno bruto - América LatinaResponsabilidade fiscal