GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL RESILIENCE AND COPING WITH COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Governmental financial resilience is characterized by the way in which government entities face and recover from financial crises or shocks, being manifested from interactive dimensions. In view of the shock generated by COVID-19, the present research seeks to assess whether vulnerability and the ability to anticipate (resilience proxies) are correlated with the ability to cope with the virus (measured by the number of tests per inhabitant). To determine possible correlations, Spearman's correlation test was used, since the sample did not respect normality in its distribution, to measure the relationship between variables. The evidence points to a negative correlation between the dependence on intergovernmental transfer (vulnerability) and the ability to generate savings (anticipation capacity) and the capacity to cope with COVID-19. Despite methodological limitations, the research provides a potential contribution to advancing the observation of the interaction between the financial and social aspects of resilience, especially in view of the role that accounting plays in shaping different forms and paths for government financial resilience, providing answers short- or long-term shocks, anticipating them through planning and control mechanisms, which can contribute to the development of governance practices based on this literature.