Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth in the Czech Republic

The aim of this article is to examine relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic development and identify direction of influence in the Czech Republic in the years 1995-2015. The research relies on the secondary statistical data of the Czech Statistical Office, the General Financial Directorate of the Czech Republic and the OECD Fiscal Decentralization Database. Since fiscal decentralization has many dimensions, the following indicators are used for empirical examination. expenditure decentralization, revenue decentralization, intergovernmental transfer decentralization and tax revenue decentralization. The study uses Hodrick-Prescott filter for isolating the cycle component of annual GDP time series. The empirical tests are based on cross correlation and Granger causality methodology. The results suggest that decentralization appears to be positively associated with GDP per capita but negatively associated with GDP growth, except expenditure decentralization positively correlated in both cases. The relationship is stronger for economic maturity than for economic growth. Based on results of Granger causality, GDP growth comes first followed by decentralization.