Issue #2 (Volume 14 2025)

Since the reform era, Indonesia has experienced three stages of fiscal decentralization. In the third stage, the focus of the policy shifted to village development by giving authority to manage village funds. However, due to a lack of supervision and inefficient governance, this policy has not been able to improve the quality of rural development. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the level of efficiency of village fund use and analyze the variables that influence it. This study employs data envelopment analysis (DEA) to determine the level of efficiency and binary logistic regression to determine the variables that influence it in 2018 and 2021. The results show an increase in the number of provinces experiencing efficiency in managing village funds. In 2018, 10 provinces (30.30%) were declared efficient, but the remaining 23 (69.70%) were declared inefficient. In 2021, the number of provinces declared efficient increased to 14 (42.42%), while 19 (57.58%) were still considered inefficient. This finding signals that the level of village fund efficiency in Indonesia is still a major challenge toward increasing rural economic growth. The variable that significantly affects the level of efficiency is the level of education of the village head. The lack of human resources who have expertise in village fund management has resulted in low-quality implementation of village development and community empowerment programs.

Digital transformation in village financial management has become a strategic issue in modern governance, but research on digital transformation is still limited and not well systematic. This study aims to analyze the evolution and development of digital transformation research in village financial management through systematic bibliometric analysis from 2015 to 2024. The paper uses bibliometric analysis of 507 documents from journals in the Scopus database processed using RStudio software with the biblioshiny package. The research findings reveal gaps in theoretical development, especially in the integration of local governance frameworks with digital innovation models. The research landscape shows a growing focus on accountability mechanisms (28 articles) and transparency systems (24 articles) but lacks comprehensive studies on implementation challenges and success factors. Although local governance has emerged as a dominant research stream (89 articles), there is still less attention to critical areas such as digital literacy, cybersecurity, and change management in the rural context. The analysis identifies three future research directions: the need for a specific digital transformation framework for village-level financial systems, mechanisms for integrating traditional governance with digital innovation, and evaluation metrics for the success of digital transformation in rural settings. These findings contribute to the development of theoretical understanding and practical implementation of digital transformation in village financial management.

This study aims to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility, budget surplus, and investment cash flow on capital expenditure budgeting within city government clusters in Indonesia. The population includes city governments recorded in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The samples were taken from data on corporate social responsibility and budget surplus, as well as investment cash flow for the fiscal year 2023 and capital expenditure budget for 2024 in 81 city governments in Indonesia. Empirical findings indicate that corporate social responsibility negatively affects capital expenditure budgeting across all city government clusters. The impact of budget surplus varies. On the one side, budget surplus has a positive effect on capital expenditure budgeting in Cluster A (highest) and a negative impact on capital expenditure budgeting in Cluster C (lowest). Conversely, in Cluster B (middle), budget surplus does not affect capital expenditure budgeting. Similarly, investment cash flow positively affects capital expenditure budgeting in Cluster A and negatively affects capital expenditure budgeting in Cluster C. Meanwhile, in Cluster B, investment cash flow does not affect capital expenditure budgeting.

Sukuk has received growing recognition as a Sharia-compliant financial instrument that promotes inclusive economic development and poverty alleviation. This study aims to investigate the dual impact of Sukuk financing on economic growth and poverty reduction in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam – three ASEAN countries with active Sukuk markets and shared development priorities.
A quantitative research design is adopted using pooled (panel) data covering the period from 2019 to 2023. Data were collected from the Asian Development Bank, Brunei Darussalam Islamic Finance, and the Financial Services Authority. Empirical investigation employs simultaneous panel equations to explore the interdependence between variables. The study applies the instrumental least squares method and the two-stage least squares technique to address potential endogeneity. Economic growth is measured by gross domestic product growth rate, while the poverty headcount ratio quantifies poverty levels. Sukuk financing is represented by the total volume of Sukuk issued. Control variables include the Human Development Index, which reflects social progress, and the inflation rate, which captures macroeconomic stability.
The findings indicate that a one percent increase in Sukuk financing results in a 0.09 percent rise in gross domestic product growth (p < 0.05), enhancing job creation and infrastructure development. Furthermore, a one percent increase in economic growth leads to a 5.97 percent decrease in poverty levels (p < 0.01), while inflation leads to a 0.64 percent rise in poverty (p < 0.05). These results confirm the effectiveness of Sukuk as a sustainable financing tool for long-term growth and poverty reduction in selected ASEAN countries.

Acknowledgment
The authors are thankful to the Deanship of Graduate Studies and Scientific Research at University of Bisha for supporting this work through the Fast-Track Research Support Program.

The Original Article was published on May 23, 2022

Correction
the section INTRODUCTION of this article in paragraph 2, the text was corrected to include the link to the citation source. The sentence now reads: “Increasing the effectiveness of financial flow impact on the budget process contributes to creating conditions for sustainable economic growth and improving the standard and quality of life around the world, including Ukraine (Muringani, 2022).”
In the LITERATURE REVIEW section of this article, the following adjustments were made:
In paragraph 1, the text was corrected to include the links to the citation sources. The sentences now read: “Financial flow management aims to ensure the growth of budget revenues and expenditures, improve the efficiency of budget expenditures, and quality and availability of budget services as a result of transformational changes due to the modernization of the budget process (Bisogno & Cuadrado-Ballesteros, 2021; Renzio & Masud, 2011). These changes include decentralization of the financial system and transition to a medium-term three-year perspective of budget planning that necessitated changes in budget legislation (Muharremi et al., 2020).”
In paragraph 4, the text was corrected to include the link to the citation source. The sentence now reads: “The formation and direction of financial flows are characterized as components of the budget process, which makes it possible to solve problems related to the emergence and reduction of existing structural imbalances of the financial system: the state of revenues and expenditures of budgets; the growing public debt of Ukraine, the presence of a persistent budget deficit (Herold, 2020).”
In the RESULTS AND DISCUSSION section of this article in paragraph 2, the text was corrected to include the link to the citation source. The sentence now reads: “Regulation of structural imbalances in the financial system is possible by improving the management of financial flows in the budget process of Ukraine, which involves the use of an effective mechanism for managing the liquidity of funds balances concentrated in TSA (Moretti et al., 2021).”
In paragraph 38, the text was corrected to include the link to the citation source. The sentence now reads: “Areas of further research on the proper management of financial flows may be related to improving fiscal regulation (Tollini, 2021).”

The direction of the state budget to defense and the military-industrial complex under martial law imposes more stringent requirements on the system of formation and execution of state budget expenditures. The study aims to determine the efficiency of the distribution of state budget expenditures and their impact on the country’s macroeconomic stability under martial law. To evaluate the implications of martial law on the expenditure component of Ukraine’s state budget, a correlation regression analysis was employed to investigate the relationship between the budget deficit and the levels of total state budget expenditures and defense spending. The empirical findings indicate that fluctuations in state budget expenditures are a significant determinant of the budget deficit. In particular, a 1 billion UAH increase in total expenditures is associated with an average rise in the budget deficit of 1.19%. This result underscores the importance of a sound fiscal policy that ensures the efficient and rational allocation of budgetary resources, particularly under conditions of heightened military and security needs. Based on analytical results, medium-term budgetary projections for the period of 2025–2027 were developed. The forecast estimates that state budget expenditures will constitute approximately 45.74% of GDP, while the budget deficit is projected to reach 18.84% of GDP. The findings emphasize the need for effective expenditure management and strategic prioritization of fiscal resources under martial law. The paper offers directions for strengthening the macroeconomic stability and financial resilience of Ukraine under martial law through the rational distribution of budget expenditures.

The development and implementation of state policy to overcome energy poverty has become particularly important in Ukraine and requires adequate methods and tools to support consumers in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. The study aims to conduct a comparative analysis of energy poverty in the EU and Ukraine, evaluate the cost of government support for vulnerable households through subsidy mechanisms, and improve the methodology for calculating heating subsidies in Ukraine under low-carbon transition conditions. Based on statistical data, the study reveals the intensifying negative impact of the 2021–2022 energy crisis on households in both the European Union and Ukraine. The results of evaluating the cost and structure of energy subsidy portfolios indicate that most governments worldwide are shifting toward economic decarburization and phasing out coal consumption subsidies in response to stricter climate obligations. The findings reveal that while energy subsidies in Ukraine are socially oriented, they place a significant burden on the state budget and fail to address the root causes of energy poverty. The paper explores the mechanism of fuel subsidies and argues that the implementation of energy efficiency measures must accompany the gradual elimination of such support. It also presents a calculation of heating subsidies based on the energy efficiency class of residential buildings, consistent with the goal of introducing NZEB standards. The formulated proposals seek to strengthen support for energy-vulnerable households and enhance monitoring activities to obtain more comprehensive and objective data on the extent of energy poverty in Ukraine.