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The arguments that consumption spending is postponable without long-term consequences while defense spending is not are misleading. Discretionary spending are not postponable items of consumption but are important contributors to productivity growth and future GDP levels.

Fiscal reforms in government are continually proposed, frequently adopted, and usually assessed as failing to achieve their desired outcomes. This paper develops a broad contingency framework that focuses on the third step--the assessment of fiscal reforms. The value of the framework is that it provides researchers as well as reformers a lens to assess the net benefits of reforms. Not only does it provide the lens, but it also suggests the accuracy or clarity of the lens in different circumstances. Our framework is contingent on two dimensions: type of fiscal reform (rules vs. judgment) and life cycle (innovators, early adopters, maturity). Our framework is broad in that it combines prior research from the budgeting and accounting literature. Recent budgeting research has suggested that an outcomes view of reform can be replaced with a process view. In addition to these viewpoints, we also analyze the monitoring and signaling viewpoints from accounting research. We believe the four viewpoints are complementary rather than mutually exclusive, and both accounting and budgeting researchers can learn from each other. We argue that signaling may be the best viewpoint for two reasons: (a) It provides insights into the net costs and benefits of adopting a reform, and (b) it provides insights into policy suggestions that are likely to increase the adoption of beneficial reforms. We then apply the framework to performance budgeting reforms of state governments in the United States. Our analysis suggests that performance measures might not be useful for the legislative decision process of allocating resources among disparate goals but appear to be useful for improving the quality and cost of providing services. Three policy suggestions are (a) legislators should focus on incentives for managers to report performance measures, (b) researchers and reformers should consider how performance budgeting could be done on a comparable basis across states, and (c) influential actors such as legislators and the media should be studied in greater detail. KEYWORDS: accounting, budgeting, fiscal reforms, performance measures, state budgeting reforms

In Russia, if transfer offset completely changes in budgetary revenues, fiscal incentives are destroyed. Zhuravskaya's results concerning the financial relationship between a region and its municipalities in one of the Russia's regions is examined.

Because of the large interregional economic disparities, redistribution and risk sharing is focused in Italy. The analysis shows that, Italy's fiscal system provides redistribution at 25-35 percent and risk sharing at 10-15 percent of GDP.

A transcript is presented of a question-and-answer session between National Journal reporters and Dan Crippen, departing director of the Congressional Budget Office. Crippen, whose term ends Dec 2002, discusses topics such as accusations of legislation delays, the CBO's image among legislators, social security, health insurance, tax cuts, and the choosing of his successor.

With women's growing presence across all branches of government, scholars recently have begun to assess whether or not female political elites alter the substantive policy outputs of government. Despite clear and convincing evidence that officials in the fourth branch of government influence policy making (Meier 1993b; Rourke 1984; Aberbach, Putnam, and Rockman 1981), most research on women's distinct impact has focused on those in legislative office. Very little is known about female representation in the executive branch even though far more women serve in the executive branch than in legislative positions. This article draws from two competing theories to assess whether gender influences policy outputs in the federal executive. Representative bureaucracy theory stresses that individuals' decisions are conditioned by their lifetime experiences, so we can expect female administrators to use their discretion in ways that produce positive outcomes for women in the population. Organizational socialization theory, on the other hand, argues that common working experiences within government agencies will diminish the salience of any differences between the sexes. Thus gender will have a minimal impact, if any, upon executive decision making. Using federal spending data from three surveys, the 1996 National Election Studies, the 1996 General Social Survey, and the 1996 Survey of Senior Executives, this article demonstrates that both gender and organizational socialization shape policy-relevant attitudes at the top of the federal executive., With women's growing presence in all branches of government, scholars recently have begun to assess whether or not female political elites alter the substantive policy outputs of government. In 1992, [...]

The 1990s were a prosperous decade in the United States. The Economic Report of the President noted that during the 1990s, the economic performance of the United States was both […]

This paper challenges conventional interpretations of the Real plan and provides an interpretation for its recent collapse.

The reorganization of the local government and devolution in Wales were influenced by the problems regarding public spending and other economic issues. Such reorganization and devolution through the establishment of the Welsh Assembly were aimed at improving the economic efficiency of public service despite global economic recessions. However, they were ineffective because the reorganization and devolution had neglected local cultural conditions and the interests of the people., Introduction This policy review looks at moves towards the creation of a Welsh Assembly (WELSH OFFICE, 1997) in the context of changes in local governance. It argues that the new [...]

AFB members are urging Canadian monetary officials to maintain interest rates at manageable levels and adopt efficient public spending measures in order to restore the economic stability of the country. The government must also provide more job opportunities to skilled and manual workers.

Evaluation strategy can be a valuable budgetary tool for Australia's Department of Finance if certain conditions are ensured. The department should determine the identity of its core business in the context of expenditure control and develop a centralized evaluation planning process. The process should also be monitored for compliance, efficiency and accuracy.

Policy mixes such as tighter fiscal policy to curb inflation and easy money by way of tax cuts to spur growth is not always viable. Such a system appreciates the currency at the expense of trade and investment., The United States in the 1980s has been put through a great macroeconomic experiment as the policy mix has shifted dramatically toward easier fiscal policy and tighter money. These events [...]