Fees and User Charges in Public Finance. Evidence from Selected OECD Countries

Abstract

The aim of this article is to assess the importance of user charges as a source of revenues in state and local government and factors that impact a volume of these revenues. In order to carry out the research it has been assumed that volume of revenues from fees and user charges are dependent on fi scal decentralization, are positively affected public expenditure and depend on the wealth of a society. Two models--for the whole public sector and for state and local government has been designed. Using a panel of 26 selected OECD countries in period 1995-2016 it has been proved that decentralization is a significant factor only in case of fees and user charges in whole public sector but not significant in decentralized model. As expected fees and user charges positively depend on volume of expenditures in both models and additionally negatively depends on tax burden. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]