LOCAL TAXES EFFICIENCY IN THE CONTEXT OF REGIONAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Development of regions is one of the priority areas of state regional policy, which purpose is to create appropriate conditions for dynamic, balanced socio-economic development of Ukraine and regions, improving living standards, ensuring compliance with state-guaranteed social protection for each citizen and elimination of main regional imbalances. Ensuring competitiveness and socio-economic development of regions is a prerequisite for growth in the local and national economies. The impact of increasing the financial autonomy of local governments primarily depends on their financial provision. One of the primary sources of local revenues is local taxes and fees, which enhance the efficiency of using budget instruments for the socio-economic development of administrative units. The main contribution of the research lies in the testing of the hypothesis of existing relationship processes between local taxes and indicators of regional development based on panel data analysis for all regions of Ukraine using the regression model in Stata SE and MS Excel. The research period covers 2018– 2020. The dataset includes parameters of local tax revenues and indicators of regional development. To substantiate the role of local taxes in regional development, a set of hypotheses about the relationships between local tax revenues and regional development dynamics were specified. In the process of calculations, 18 regression equations (ordinary least squares panel regression method) were created, which allow estimating the impact of local taxes on the general indicators of regional development. Calculations results proved that local taxes have a significant positive effect on ensuring the growth in regional social and economic development indicators. This creates a background for enhancing the financial capacity of local budgets due to the improvements in the local tax system.