Efforts on the continued increase of local government's fiscal spending related to improving the residential environment are desirable to counter the declining phenomenon of urban decline. At the same time, however, it is also important to know how to operate limited finances more efficiently to improve the residential environment. This study aims to contribute to the rational allocation of fiscal expenditure and the creation of productive results for the improvement of the settlement environment. To this end, this study analyzed the efficiency of financial expenditure related to the improvement of the residential environment in 225 local governments nationwide. The relationship between financial expenditure and residential environmental performance was also measured and the CCR, BCC and SBM models were used to measure efficiency. The analysis showed that most local governments need to scale back their fiscal spending related to improving the government environment. In addition, it was required to prepare feasible spending plans by bench-marking the processes of residential environment improvement projects in areas such as Haman-gun, Jongno-gu, Seoul, and Seocho-gu, which are considered to be under efficient operation.

In Indonesia, micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are introduced to increase income by providing many easier jobs to improve economic growth. They have also been reported to be generally supportive of the local industry. The government policies on investment and expenditure have the ability to promote MSMEs and economic growth. Therefore, this research was conducted to analyze the theoretical background and empirical study to investigate government’s role to promote MSMEs growth in Indonesia. The secondary data after the 2008 global financial crisis recorded quarterly from 2009 to 2019 Q3 were analyzed using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression model. The results showed government expenditure has a positive and significant contribution to small- and medium-sized enterprises, but the effect was not significant for micro-businesses. Meanwhile, the investment sector was discovered to have a positive and significant effect on MSMEs. The policy implications of the Indonesian government are expected to focus on its expenditure’s role as the most important factor for “social-economic protection of the community” through micro-enterprises, which are numerous and more attached to the real community economic-social life. Therefore, the existence of micro-businesses is very helpful for the lower classes despite their high vulnerability to crisis.

Purpose - This research is aimed to investigate the impact of the Information and Communication Technology (hereinafter ICT) development index and ICT investment on Indonesian economic growth. Research design, data and methodology - The data used consist of ICT development index, government expenditure on ICT sector, and economic growth from 33 provinces in Indonesia from 2012 to 2015. Based on the Networked Readiness Index published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Indonesia was ranked 80th among 142 countries in 2012 and had climbed 64th in 2014. This indicates that the businesses in Indonesia have adopted ICTs to increase productivity and expand their activities. Panel data regression analysis is performed to reveal the change of the impact over time in each of the provinces. Result - The ICT development index and government expenditure for ICT have a positive effect on the economic growth of all provinces, although the impact is different in each of the provinces. There is a digital gap between the provinces, especially the large digital gap occurring with DKI Jakarta. The provinces of Eastern Indonesia such as NTT and Papua are still relatively slow in development of ICT. Conclusions - ICT development index and allocation of local government expenditure for ICT have significant effect on economic growth. ICT development index has a bigger role in increasing economic growth.