A relação entre a governança e a condição financeira dos municípios brasileiros

Abstract

Public governance has gained increasing importance in the administration of municipalities, especially in a context of fiscal constraints and the demand for greater transparency and efficiency in the management of public resources. This study aims to analyze the relationship between governance in Brazilian municipalities and their governmental financial condition. Grounded in Financial Condition Theory and empirical studies, the research hypothesizes that there is a significant association between governance indices (measured by the management dimension of the IGM-FA) and the financial condition of municipalities (measured by the indicators of debt, current savings, and relative liquidity, which compose the payment capacity score (CAPAG)). The research covered all 5,570 Brazilian municipalities, and the database spanned the period from 2018 to 2023. The variables Debt Indicator, Current Savings, and Liquidity totaled 31,130, 32,025, and 27,303 observations, respectively, due to the absence or inconsistency of municipal financial reports. The methodology adopted involves panel data analysis with fixed effects, employing regression models to assess the relationship between municipal governance and governmental financial condition. The results obtained in this study show that the coefficients of the analyzed variables presented negative values in relation to the Management Dimension of the Municipal Governance Index (IGM/CFA). Thus, an increase in the governance index is associated with a decrease in debt, current savings, and liquidity levels, suggesting that a more favorable financial condition is related to more efficient governance. The results support all the hypotheses formulated: the Management Dimension of the IGM-CFA has a significant influence on the debt index, the current savings indicator, and the relative liquidity indicator, suggesting that more effective governance is associated with better financial conditions in municipalities. The analysis also revealed that per capita PIB is positively related to financial condition, while population size showed no significant influence.