Investigating the Effect of Fiscal Decentralization on Economic Growth in Selected Developing Countries: Two-Step SGMM Approach

From a financial perspective, decentralization is a transfer of resources and does expenses from the central government to local governments. Many economists and economic development, in particular, suggests the correct implementation of fiscal decentralization is one of the most important factors of economic growth in developing countries. In this context, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of fiscal decentralization on economic growth in selected developing countries. To achieve the above objective is used three indexes of fiscal decentralization including revenue, expenses and vertical imbalance and Panel Co integration analysis and two-stage system generalized method of moment estimator (SGMM) (presented by Blundell and Bond (1998)). Results of this study show that the effect of fiscal decentralization of revenue and expenditure on economic growth is negative and significant. Also, the effect of vertical imbalance on economic growth is meaningless. The main reasons for these results can be found in the absence of clear and simple rules of decentralization, lack of expertise in the management and strengthen of control systems the subordinate governments in developing countries. Significant and symptom stable of control variables with diagnostic tests, show the econometric model is correctly specified.