| dc.description.abstract | This study examines the impact of local government budgets on emergency response effectiveness by utilizing the rdinary Least Squares (OLS) method for multiple regression analysis. The research collects statistical data and budget records from fire departments across 19 counties and cities in Taiwan, covering the period from 2013 to 2022. Given that budgets are limited resources for government agencies to achieve their policy goals, previous literature has rarely delved into the effectiveness and budgets of fire departments, focusing primarily on financial fire losses and fire occurrence rates. This study offers a more omprehensive set of performance indicators and timely data, providing a valuable reference for decision-making.
The study investigates four types of budgets: local government budgets, fire department budgets, personnel expenses, and equipment and investment budgets. The performance indicators include firefighter casualty rates, civilian casualty rates, rescue rates, and fire occurrence rates. The empirical findings indicate that an increase in local government budgets can reduce firefighter casualty rates in the next year, while other budget types show no
significant regression results with firefighter casualties. Moreover, none of the budget types significantly affect civilian casualty rates. However, increasing local government, fire department, or personnel expenses budgets can improve rescue rates in the subsequent year. Lastly, local government, fire department, and personnel expenses budgets positively correlate with fire occurrence rates, contradicting the study′s hypothesis. | en_US |