This study empirically tested for the relationship between different measures of decentralization and three indicators of welfare—per capita income, poverty incidence, and the human development index. It utilized a panel data of around 60 countries of various income levels for the ten-year period from 2006 to 2015. The study primarily employed the System GMM method, along with some robustness checks. Results suggest that decentralization is associated with higher per capita income; but it has no relationship with poverty nor with HDI. The relationship, however, is not linear—it increases at a decreasing rate until it becomes negative at high levels of decentralization. In addition, revenue decentralization has the strongest relationship with per capita income among the three decentralization measures tested. There is also evidence that good governance strengthens the positive relationship between decentralization and per capita income; and that the decentralization-welfare relationship varies across country income levels.

中文翻译：

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权力下放和福利：来自一组国家的证据

本研究实证检验了不同的权力下放措施与三个福利指标——人均收入、贫困发生率和人类发展指数之间的关系。它使用了 2006 年至 2015 年十年期间大约 60 个不同收入水平的国家的面板数据。该研究主要采用系统 GMM 方法，以及一些稳健性检验。结果表明，权力下放与较高的人均收入有关；但它与贫困无关，也与人类发展指数无关。然而，这种关系不是线性的——它以递减的速度增加，直到在高度分散化时变为负值。此外，在所测试的三种分权措施中，收入分权与人均收入的关系最强。还有证据表明，良好的治理加强了权力下放与人均收入之间的正向关系；并且权力下放与福利的关系因国家收入水平而异。