2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Public Resources Allocation and Regional Representation in the Legislature : A Case Study of Thailand's Budget
| Project/Area Number |
18530219
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Economic policy
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| Research Institution | Doshisha University |
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Principal Investigator |
KAWAURA Akihiko Doshisha University, Graduate School of Policy & Management, Professor (10271610)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | Thailand / budget allocation / democracy / public choice / election |
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| Research Abstract |
Past studies have identified that the incentives of politicians to serve their home constituencies is a determinant of budget allocation in mature representative democracies. This research is an attempt to extend the analysis to a fledgling democracy by investigating the relationship between legislative representation and geographical allocation of budget among Thailand's 76 provinces with data from the 2000-2005 fiscal years. Panel data analyses demonstrate that the presence of ruling party members in the province delegates in the House of Representatives has implications on the distribution of government expenditure. The provinces that are represented by ruling party members tend to receive a greater amount of fiscal outlays relative to their revenue contribution, and this association is observed for capital expenditure regardless of political parties controlling the executive branch of the government. This result suggests that public choice theory holds in young democracies as well, and that democratic institutions could have economic performance consequences through public resource allocation in developing economies.
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