Regional Heads' Discretionary Spending in Local Election

Abstract

Various research in several nations showed that incumbent regional leader who ran for a second term exploited their budgetary authority to win re-election. The budget components used are primarily expenditures on people and capital. The purpose of this study was to examine whether discretionary spending on social assistance and capital expenditure occurred during Indonesia's simultaneous local elections in which the incumbent was re-run for a second term. We used panel data regression analysis to examine district-city leaders' 2017 and 2018 simultaneous local elections. The sample of 504 municipal districts showed empirical evidence that the incumbent increased spending on social assistance, equipment and machinery, and road irrigation and network maintenance. This finding is consistent with prior research indicating the incidence of discretionary spending in incumbent led local elections.