Political budget cycles at the municipal level in Slovakia: between structural dependence and electoral exhibitionism

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the strategic composition of Slovak municipalities’ revenues and expenditures and the role of political budget cycles. We found that Slovak municipalities tend to have significantly higher capital revenues and capital expenditures in periods close to municipal elections. We also found strategic management of current expenditures and revenues depending on the time of municipal elections. We have controlled these estimations with several dimensions identified in the literature, from socio-economic variables to political characteristics of the incumbent mayors.

KEYWORDS:

• Political budget cycle
• Slovak municipalities
• capital revenues
• capital expenditures

Acknowledgement

Authors acknowledge the suggestions provided by three anonymous referees of Local Government Studies. The remaining limitations are the authors’ exclusive ones. Lenka Maličká has to acknowledge the following: ”This paper is financed by The Slovak Research and Development Agency within the project «APVV-21-0318» and Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and Slovak Academy of Sciences within the project «1/0681/22»”. Paulo Mourao also has to acknowledge the following: ”This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project «UIDB/03182/2020»”.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lenka Maličká

Lenka Maličká was born in Košice (Slovak Republic). She is the author of several scientific articles indexed by ISI Thompson. Her research interests include the area of Fiscal Federalism, Fiscal Decentralisation, Sub-national Taxation, and Intergovernmental Transfer Schemes.

Paulo Reis Mourao

Paulo Reis Mourao was born in Vila Real (Portugal). He is the author of several scientific articles indexed by ISI Thompson and of some books. His works are focused on Economics, Public Finance, Social Economics, and Sports Economics. He appears often in national and international media for commenting on social and economic issues. Paulo Mourao has been awarded several times for his scientific works.