18 Dec 2009
Dynamic scoring Stuart Adam, Antoine Bozio
Dynamic scoring – taking full account of all the economic effects of policies when estimating their budgetary effects – is almost self-evidently attractive. But it is formidably difficult to achieve. This paper assesses the key conceptual and practical challenges it poses and considers the pros and cons of adopting it. The objective should be to provide more useful information while being robust to the political debate.
18 Dec 2009
Budget transparency around the World Ruth Carlitz, Paolo de Renzio, Warren Krafchik, Vivek Ramkumar
The movement for greater fiscal transparency has been gaining momentum in recent years. To contribute to these efforts, the International Budget Partnership (IBP) developed the Open Budget Survey in 2006. The 2008 survey finds that the state of budget transparency around the world is deplorable, although a number of countries have improved their performance over the past two years. This article discusses the results of the 2008 survey and ways of improving budget transparency.
18 Dec 2009
Budgeting in Indonesia Jón R. Blöndal, Ian Hawkesworth, Hyun Deok Choi
This article discusses Indonesia’s economic and fiscal performance following the 1997/98 financial crisis and the transition to democracy, as well as the budget formulation process and the role of Parliament. Aspects of budget implementation are discussed throughout the article. Jón R. Blöndal, Ian Hawkesworth and Hyun-Deok Choi
18 Dec 2009
Fixing fair value accounting Peter J. Wallison
The concept of fair value accounting was introduced in 1993 to make financial statements easier to compare and balance sheets more reflective of real values. This article discusses the true consequences of fair value accounting and its impact on the stability of financial institutions.
18 Dec 2009
Budgeting for fiscal space Allen Schick
Fiscal space refers to the financial resources available to a government for policy initiatives through the budget and related decisions. This article reviews the factors that contribute to the shrinkage of fiscal space, considers methods for protecting or enlarging it, and reflects on how budgeting may be recast into a process for explicitly allocating scarce fiscal space.
18 Dec 2009
Budgeting for entitlements Allen Schick
An entitlement is a provision of law that establishes a legal right to public funds. In most OECD countries, entitlements were the principal growth area of public expenditure from the mid 1950s to the mid 1980s. This article discusses budgeting for entitlements under two rather different conditions: the expansion of this category of expenditure during the quarter century after World War II, and cutback and "status quo" budgeting during the decade since the first oil shock.
By Allen Schick, University of Maryland, United States
18 Dec 2009
The challenge of decremental budgeting Daniel Tarschys
At the start of the decremental decade of the 1980s, governments encountered many difficulties in making ends meet. This article discusses some of the problems of post-expansive stagnation and the merits of certain techniques such as indexing, global norms, decentralising hard choices and the well-balanced package.
