Does gender budget system improve government fiscal accountability? Evidence from municipal governments*

Gender budgeting system aims to promote gender-equality through a process of analyzing and incorporating gender-specific policy impacts on government budgets. In this study, we examine the association between gender budgeting system and fiscal accountability of municipal governments. Drawing upon a database of municipal governments of seven metropolitan cities, we find an insignificant association between total gender budgets and fiscal accountability. However, when we divide gender budgets into two project types (Direct vs. Indirect Gender Budgets), we find that Direct (Indirect) Gender Budgets have a significantly negative (positive) association with fiscal accountability. Unlike Direct Gender Budgets targeting only females with relatively simple fiscal planning, Indirect Gender Budgets are based on in-depth gender impact analysis and performance management process that can contribute to improvement of fiscal performance. In particular, Indirect Gender Budgets show a stronger association with fiscal accountability in such sub-dimensions as fiscal transparency and operational efficiency. In our cross-sectional tests, we find that the positive association of Indirect Gender Budgets with fiscal accountability is more pronounced when the municipalities have a relatively longer history of operating gender budget system. Overall, our results suggest a possibility that gender budget system plays a positive role of improving fiscal accountability through more sophisticated budget and performance management system, as opposed to negative perceptions on its inefficient operation among the public and regulators.