지방자치단체 간 비교경쟁이 대학재정지원 수준 결정에 미치는 영향 분석 = The Effect of Yardstick Competition among Local Governments on the Determination of University Financial Support

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study empirically examines whether yardstick competition operates in the determination of local governments’ financial support for universities. Using panel data from 226 municipalities in Korea over the period 2016–2024, a regression analysis is conducted to identify the effect of neighboring governments’ spending levels on a municipality’s own level of university support. The results show that the level of university financial support in neighboring jurisdictions has a statistically significant positive effect on that of a given municipality, indicating the presence of a yardstick competition mechanism among local governments. Notably, this effect is statistically significant only in non-metropolitan areas, whereas no significant effect is found in metropolitan areas. In addition, political blame risk, measured by the net outflow rate of the youth population, does not significantly moderate the relationship between neighboring governments’ spending and local policy responses. This finding suggests that policy responses driven by yardstick competition are not systematically strengthened by the intensity of political blame pressure. Overall, the results indicate that local governments tend to adjust their fiscal decisions by using neighboring jurisdictions’ policy levels as a reference point, while the magnitude of yardstick competition varies depending on the policy environment in which municipalities operate. These findings imply that, in designing central government policies for university support, a differentiated approach that takes into account regional policy environments may be more appropriate than uniformly promoting intergovernmental competition.