Effects of intergovernmental transfers on the mobilization of local public revenues: case of Cameroonian municipalities

This article examines the effect of intergovernmental transfers on local public revenue mobilization. From a sample of 213 municipalities out of the 360 in Cameroon, we specify a model estimated in panel data using different econometric methods over the period 2010-2020. Our results show that intergovernmental transfers, measured by the annual amount of the general decentralization grant transferred to municipalities by the central State of Cameroon, contribute to increasing local public revenue. This result indi-cates that central government subsidies to municipalities, far from discouraging them from mobilizing own revenues, rather help municipalities to collect additional own revenues and broaden the tax base. They also facilitate the provision of public goods, which in turn improves the tax morale of populations.