POLITICAL BUDGET CYCLES: STUDY FOR THE MUNICIPALITIES OF THE STATE OF MINAS GERAIS – 2000/2008

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the behavior of public spending in those cities and the relationship of its fluctuations with the electoral calendar. The units of analysis correspond to the 853 municipalities of Minas Gerais, divided according to the classification by geographic regions for the period 2000-2008. The study is primarily quantitative, descriptive literature, having been used secondary data collected from sites of official bodies. We analyzed the behavior of municipal expenditure miners from 2000 to 2008, covering the municipal elections of 2000 and 2008 in order to detect cyclical behavior in the conduct of fiscal policy. Through an econometric approach to panel data, we tested the Expenditure Budget, the Economic Costs and Social Expenditure in order to detect possible manipulation of an electoral nature performed by the rulers. The results suggest that for the municipalities of Minas Gerais, the electoral calendar has statistically significant influence on the behavior of public expenditure, having been found the same result for each mesoregion are.