Análisis de las finanzas públicas en Iberoaméricatransparencia, confianza y gobernanza

Résumé

This doctoral thesis presents an analysis of public finances in Latin America, specifically regarding transparency, trust, and governance at the level of local governments. The objectives that guided the research were focused on a) identify the factors that explain the global, accounting, financial and budgetary transparency of municipal governments; b) analyze the determinants of citizen confidence in financial management, transparency and good governance of the municipalities; c) examine the factors that determine the financial performance of local governments and; d) analyze the impact of the political sphere on municipal management. To address this issue, we use as a methodological basis the model of Ordinary Least Squares, complemented Two-Stage Least Squares and Multilevel Regression. The variables used correspond to data from the 298 Honduran municipalities in different years examined in the study. The first chapter studies the political, financial and socio-economic determinants of electronic financial transparency in Honduran municipalities. Transparency and access to public information are an important tool for the proper functioning of governments. The results show a weak impact of the ideology and gender of the mayor on transparency, with progressive governments and male mayors, more transparency is achieved. Municipalities that receive more transfers are more transparent. Municipalities are not reporting higher levels of taxes, deficits, and debt to their taxpayers. The largest and highest-income municipalities are more transparent. The second chapter studies institutional trust in Honduran municipal governments. Local governments are concerned about the fundamental role that citizen confidence plays in achieving better governance. Trust is related to better economic performance, greater active participation of citizens in politics, a good exercise of government, the reduction of corruption and, in general, a healthier democracy. We find that corruption does not affect trust, while transparency does. Conservative citizens rely more on their left-wing municipal governments than when the opposite occurs. Municipalities that have an absolute majority in the municipal council are more trusted, and the audit has a positive and significant impact on trust. Also, citizen engagement and participation positively influence trust. The third chapter analyzes political and socioeconomic factors as determinants of municipal financial performance in Honduras. Local government authorities constantly face challenges that break the harmony of the municipal financial condition and, therefore, must respond to economic, political and social changes, as well as design systems that allow for sustainable economic development. The results obtained confirm the theories of partisanship, as leftist governments show a higher total municipal expenditure. Also, municipalities with majority governments impose higher taxes. Political alignment also has a positive impact on spending. There is no opportunistic political budget cycle and there are no economies of scale since a higher population density does not mean lower per capita expenditures. The economic level positively impacts per capita spending. We found a strong "flypaper effect". Chapter four examines the determinants of corruption in Honduran municipalities. In some countries, corruption has penetrated institutions and undermined the economy and development. At the local level, corruption is more visible to citizens than corruption at the regional or national level, since the local government affects and has a greater impact on the daily life of its inhabitants. We find that financial factors impact the corruption of local governments. Municipal spending positively influences corruption, while debt and audits reduce the corrupt behavior of officials. Considering the political factors, none of the variables have any degree of significance. Socioeconomic factors, in general, are not statistically significant as determinants of corruption.