Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth: Evidence From Selected Muslim Countries

Since 1970 era, the discussion about fiscal decentralization becomes an important subject. A recent World Bank study found that of the 75 developing and transition countries in the world with populations greater than 5 million, all but 12 claim to be embarked on some transfer of fiscal power from the central to sub national governments. This is a revolu-tion of how people think fiscally. The subject has also attracted many researchers to explore the decentralization system. As such many researchers mainly try to focus that fiscal decen-tralization would have a significant effect on economic growth. Empirically, these research-ers also prove that the decentralization approach of a nation's fiscal structure is an effective strategy to promote economic growth. The central structure of fiscal decentralization is the degree that creates growth-promoting decentralization systems that distinguish decentraliza-tion system capabilities in promoting economic growth to a greater or lesser degree. Hence, this paper will provide the empirical evidence for selected Muslim countries where these countries adopt the differences approaches in fiscal decentralization, i.e., transition coun-tries versus countries with a well-functioning fiscal system. JEL classification: H7; O

Fiscal Decentralization Generates Economic Growth: Evidence From Province-Level Cross-Section Data for Indonesia

Recently, fiscal decentralization, which involves the devolution of government fiscal responsibilities to lower levels of government, has been discussed in many developed and developing countries. In particular, the effect of fiscal decentralization on economic growth is a key issue in recent theoretical and empirical studies in public finance. The empirical evidences produce mixed results. In this study, the effect of fiscal decentralization on economic growth in a sample of several provinces will be explored. A province study offers several advantages: a bigger sample of data is available for province than for Indonesia; and panel data estimation is able to adjust the cultural, historical, and institutional differences and also to capture the local heterogeneities. By adopting a production-function-based estimation framework, the empirical estimation is done on a sample of cross section data that comprises of 26 province governments and the time series yearly data from 1992 to 2002. The Generalized Least Square method is used to test these data. The results indicate that: first, the fiscal decentralization variables (expenditure indicator) show the positive and significant coefficients, while, the revenue indicator shows the negative relationship with economic growth. Hence, several policy implications can be derived; i.e, the local government should be able: to increase their non taxes revenues; to create conducive conditions for capital inflows; and to develop a clear framework for fiscal decentralization assignment such as income redistribution and borrowingJEL classification: E60; E62; H62; H63; 0