2026-10-12T10:55:59Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33820501 2026-09-15T19:54:17Z portal_1197 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

Data for Tax me, but spend wisely? Sources of public finance and government accountability in Brazil 2015-2020 Lucie Gadenne (24870490) Taxation -- Brazil Government spending policy -- Brazil Expenditures, Public -- Brazil Education -- Economic aspects -- Brazil Migrated from ePrints Existing evidence suggests that extra grant revenues lead to little improvements in public services in developing countries--but would governments spend tax revenues differently? This paper considers a program that invests in the tax capacity of Brazilian municipalities. Using variations in the timing of program uptake, I find that it raises local tax revenues and that the increase in taxes is used to improve both the quantity and quality of municipal education infrastructure. In contrast, increases in grants over which municipalities have the same discretion as taxes have no impact on any measure of local public infrastructure. These results suggest that the way governments are financed matters: governments spend increases in tax revenues more toward expenditures that benefit citizens than increases in grant revenues.<br><br>Data record is empty, and contains a link to the project data at Open ICPSR. The data set comprises of 14 years panel data on municipal revenues and expenditure outcomes, primarily the quality and quantity of locally funded public education infrastructure. The resulting paper considers a program that invests in the tax capacity of Brazilian municipalities to assess whether better tax infrastructure has an effect on public service provision relative to grants. It compares how municipalities allocate increases in funds from the tax capacity program to increases in funds from tax and transfer revenues from the central government. The main measure of public expenditure outcomes considered is municipal education infrastructure. This data is available in the annual school census conducted by the Ministry of Education. Other expenditure outcomes that complement the results on education in the data are health infrastructure and corruption. Corruption data is obtained from the random audits for corruption in Brazil by an independent audit agency. The data on municipal health units comes from a census of health facilities conducted in 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2009. 2026-09-15T19:54:17Z Dataset Dataset 10.82444/warw.33820501.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Data_for_Tax_me_but_spend_wisely_Sources_of_public_finance_and_government_accountability_in_Brazil_2015-2020/33820501 CC BY 4.0