 Fiscal Decentralization and Public Sector EmploymentJorge Martinez-Vazquez () and
Ming-Hung Yao
Public Finance Review, 2009, vol. 37, issue 5, 539-571 Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between public sector employment and fiscal decentralization. We develop a theoretical framework modeling the interactions between the central and subnational executives regarding the level of public employment at the central and subnational government levels. In our empirical work, based on a large cross-country dataset, we find that, ceteris paribus, the level of total public sector employees in a country increases with its level of fiscal decentralization. Even though central government employment decreases with decentralization, this is more than fully offset by the increase in employment at the subnational level accompanying decentralization. Our empirical results also indicate that the relationship between GDP per capita and public sector employment is not monotonic but quadratic, that total public sector employment is higher in unitary countries vis-à -vis federal countries, and that public employment increases with the country’s international economic openness. Keywords: fiscal decentralization; public sector employment; public sector size (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:37:y:2009:i:5:p:539-571 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Public Finance Review |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.