Corruption and the composition of governmental expenditure: evidence from Controladoria-Geral da União's Public Random Drawing Inspection Program

Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between corruption and the composition of governmental expenditure in Brazilian municipalities. Previous studies using data for countries show that corruption distorts the allocation of public resources, which increases expenditure on national defense and decreases expenditure on health and education. Using a measure of corruption derived from Controladoria-Geral da União's reports, results of OLS estimates indicate that a different phenomenon occurs in Brazilian municipalities. A positive and significant relationship between corruption and expenditure on education and health is found. This phenomenon is primarily a consequence of the discretionary power of municipal expenditure and federal laws, which require minimum expenditures on education and health as a percentage of revenue for municipalities.

摘要：本文探讨巴西市政腐败与政府支出结构之间的关联。过往基于多国数据开展的研究表明，腐败会扭曲公共资源配置，推高国防支出占比，同时削减卫生与教育领域的财政投入。本文采用巴西联邦总审计署（Controladoria-Geral da União）报告衍生的腐败衡量指标，经普通最小二乘法（Ordinary Least Squares，OLS）估计的结果显示，巴西市政层面存在截然不同的现象：腐败与教育、卫生领域的支出呈显著正相关关系。该现象主要源于市政支出的自由裁量权，以及联邦法律要求各市政当局须将收入的一定比例用于教育与卫生领域的最低支出规定。