지방자치단체 순세계잉여금이 부채에 미치는 영향

A Study on the Effect of Budget Surplus on the Liability in the Local Governments

This study analyzes the effect of budget surplus on the reduction of liability in the Korean local governments by examining panel data for all local governments from 2008-2015 (9 years). This study examines the effect of budget surplus on total liability, and sub-types of liability, including short-term, long-term, and other types of liability. The findings of the study is as follow. First, when all 243 local governments were analyzed, it shows that a 1% increase in budget surplus leads to only 0.045 % reduction of total liability, which is quite inelastic. Second, when the effects of types of liability were analyzed, the budget surplus leads to an reduction of long-term liability only. It did not have any impact on short-term and other liabilities. The findings indicate that budget surplus has minimum effect on the reduction of local liability, and most budget surplus were used to supplement next year spendings. When types of local governments were examined, the findings demonstrate that the budget surplus has led to a reduction of total liability in metropolitan, provincial, cities, and counties. However, it did not have any effect in the case of ward (district). As in all 243 local governments, the budget surplus leads to a reduction of long-term liability only. It did not have any effect on short-term and other types of liabilities. To summarize, the above findings show that local budget surplus is not an effective tool to reduce liability unless effective policy is designed. Nevertheless, the findings add an important empirical findings in understanding local fiscal behavior.