Do External Grants to District Governments Discourage Own Revenue Generation? A Look at Local Public Finance Dynamics in Ghana

Tewodaj Mogues () and Samuel Benin

World Development, 2012, vol. 40, issue 5, 1054-1067

Abstract: Using rich panel data on all of Ghana’s districts’ local public finances over 11 years, this paper investigates the way that intergovernmental and other transfers to local governments affect local governments’ incentives to collect internally generated revenues and funds (IGF). We find that despite an incentive scheme built into one of the major intergovernmental grants, the flow of all grants taken together discourages, rather than encourages, IGF. This is reflected both in the depressing effect of transfers on IGF levels, as well as on IGF growth.

Keywords: decentralization; local public finance; internally generated revenues; intergovernmental transfers; Africa; Ghana (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Do external grants to district governments discourage own-revenue generation?: A look at local public finance dynamics in Ghana (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:40:y:2012:i:5:p:1054-1067

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.12.001

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