The Impact of Governor’s Political Environment on Local Government Non-Subsidized Expenditures for Disability Policies

Abstract

　In Japan, most of the local governments non-subsidized expenditures are spent to finance welfare programs. Those expenditure shares of total burdens are greater for municipalities than for prefectures. With regards to the spending for persons with disabilities, however, the difference of non-subsidized expenditure levels between prefectures and municipalities is very small, then prefectures also play an important role. Since non-subsidized expenditures are discretionary mechanisms for local governments, the large differences in spending levels among prefectures are likely to be influenced by the local governmental political environment. In this paper, we examined whether the level of non-subsidized expenditures for persons with disabilities is affected by the political environment of governors and legislatures, using prefectural panel data for years 2013 and 2014. The results suggest that the governors who were supported by the Komeito reduced their non-subsidized disability expenditures, while the governors who were supported by share a ride the Democratic Party and Social Democratic Party increased their share of non-subsidized disability policy expenditures.