Fiscal awareness and participatory budgeting: an exploratory study

Abstract

There is a paucity of research that has linked participatory budgeting to tax revenues, and no studies that have attempted to find a potential causal relationship between participating in this type of process and increasing individuals’ tax compliance. This paper therefore seeks to make a small contribution to the field by providing empirical evidence on this topic. Based on 530 questionnaires from a municipality with a track record in participatory processes, a system of structural equations was used to show how active engagement in a participatory budgeting process could lead to greater fiscal awareness.