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Moments after his inauguration, President Biden signed a document titled, 'Memorandum on Modernizing Regulatory Review.' It's as technocratic, inconspicuous, and inside-the-beltway as the title suggests. But it could reshape the [...]

In October 2003, GFF dedicated an issue to a perennial question: What's wrong with budgeting? Then--much like today, and several times since--we noted that state and local--governments were mired in [...]

Budgetary information is a vital part of government financial reporting. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) revised budgetary reporting standards in GASB Statement No. 34, Basic Financial Statements--and Management's Discussion [...]

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5850.2010.00955.x Byline: JOSE A. DORTA-VELAZQUEZ (1), JAVIER DE LEON-LEDESMA (2), JORGE V. PEREZ-RODRIGUEZ (3) Abstract: The present work empirically analyzes diverse budgetary theories (incrementalism, garbage can, rational) in municipal cost programs, paying special attention to the utility of financial information in decision making. The sample analyzed corresponds to a set of Spanish city councils in the period 1996-2004, and the econometric methodology used is a dynamic panel data model. The main conclusion reached is that the budgetary allocation of municipal costs does not follow a random path; incrementalism is of particular importance, together with financial information variables. The utility of budgetary indicators is reflected in the fact that municipal managers adopt rational elements, although incrementalism remains the habitual behavior. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Financial Economics and Accounting, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Campus Universitario de Tafira, s/n Edificio de Ciencias Empresariales y Economicas, Modulo D-0.05 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas 35017, Spain (2)Department of Financial Economics and Accounting, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Campus de Tafira, s/n Edificio de Ciencias Empresariales y Economicas, Modulo D-0.05 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas 35017, Spain (3)Department of Quantitative Methods in Business Administration, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Campus Universitario de Tafira, Las Palmas 35017, Spain.

Part 5 of 6 Budgeting. It can be a powerful tool for running and controlling your business, or it can be a complete waste of time. No matter how thoughtfully [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2008.04.004 Byline: Nicolas Berland (a), Eve Chiapello (b) Abstract: This article is a contribution to the study of the spread of management innovations, methods and rhetorics. It particularly concerns the influence of ideological and political factors, which have so far mostly escaped in-depth study. In particular, we seek to understand to what extent a critique of society developed by social reformers can be a source of inspiration for managers, leading them to change their practices and experiment with new devices. Relying on the framework of historical change in management practices developed by Boltanski and Chiapello [Boltanski, L., & Chiapello, E. (2005). The new spirit of capitalism. London: Verso (Translation of Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme, Paris: Gallimard, 1999)], we study the specific development of budgetary control in France, examined in the light of the general political and economic history of the 20th century. This framework simultaneously encompasses the dissemination of a new accounting practice, the transformation of capitalist institutions and mo des of regulation in a given period and country, and the programmatic discourses [Miller, P., & Rose, N. (1990). Governing economic life. Economy and Society, 19(1), 1-31] associated with the historical move. More exactly, what interests us is a double enrolment process. The business world promoters of budgetary control use the rhetorics of social reformers to present budgetary control as a solution to the economic and social problems of their time; conversely, social reformers promote budgetary control as a realistic, efficient tool that can change the world. Ultimately, a degree of alliance is possible around this management tool, although the extent to which the meanings each group attributes to its action are shared may remain unclear. Based on an analysis of the writings of budgetary control promoters of the 1930s and the 1950s, we show the close links between their discourse and the reforming ideas of their time, and how we can trace through this corpus the evolution of this kind of political rationalities [Miller, P., & Rose, N. (1990). Governing economic life. Economy and Society, 19(1), 1-31] associated with governing and managing corporations we call the spirit of capitalism [Boltanski, L., & Chiapello, E. (2005). The new spirit of capitalism. London: Verso (Translation of Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme, Paris: Gallimard, 1999)]. Author Affiliation: (a) Universite Paris-Dauphine, DRM, Place du Marechal de Lattre de Tassigny, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France (b) HEC School of Management, 78 350 Jouy-en-Josas, France

Active investors often use benchmarks to provide guidance to themselves or their portfolio managers about a wide range of investment decisions. Ideally, a benchmark defines the types of securities in [...]

Most organizations recognize budgets as a key element in their management control systems, but the usefulness of budgets has generated much recent discussion and debate. Though budgets are useful for [...]

Editor's note: In 2006, the City of Toronto received GFOA's Award for Excellence in Government Finance in the budgeting and financial planning category for its long-term fiscal plan. Much has [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2004.07.005 Byline: Robert J. Parker (a), Larissa Kyj (b) Abstract: This study develops a model of vertical information sharing between superior and subordinate in the budgeting process. Upward information sharing involves the revelation of private information by subordinate to superior. Its proposed antecedents are budget participation and organizational commitment while job performance is a proposed outcome. Downward information exchanges from superior to subordinate are also examined by including role ambiguity in the model. Survey results suggest that vertical information sharing is an important intervening variable in understanding the performance effects of budget participation and organizational commitment. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Accounting, College of Business Administration, University of New Orleans, Lakefront, New Orleans, LA 70148, USA (b) Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ 08028-9932, USA

This study develops a model of vertical information sharing between superior and subordinate in the budgeting process. Upward information sharing involves the revelation of private information by subordinate to superior. Its proposed antecedents are budget participation and organizational commitment while job performance is a proposed outcome. Downward information exchanges from superior to subordinate are also examined by including role ambiguity in the model. Survey results suggest that vertical information sharing is an important intervening variable in understanding the performance effects of budget participation and organizational commitment.

A study analysing the effect of public sector reforms stipulated by World Bank on budgetary control and performance monitoring in Ghana Food Distribution Corporation (GFDC), a state-owned enterprise, is presented. The reforms had little impact on budgeting practices in GFDC. Reporting on accounting and performance too did not improve much. Therefore, public interests were not served.

UK's pre-budget report 2004, which is a precursor to the budget for 2005/06, is discussed.

The world of institutional investing is changing. Increasingly, investors are designing their investment policy in terms of two broad types of risk exposures: market risk (e.g., passive exposure to global [...]

Phoenix, AZ * May 16-19, 2004 Dave Sayre, CCE attended the Opening General Session of NACM's 108th Credit Congress and says, 'What an opening ceremony!!! From the beginning--with a reenactment [...]

The strategic plan is linked to the budget and establishing methods to assess whether an organization's financial management adheres to the strategic plan. It explains the concepts underlying strategic budgeting and the ways by which strategic budgeting strategies can be advanced.

Alternative budgeting procedures for government agencies' services are analyzed. An important feature of this analysis is the double budget constraint (the limiting of expenditures through a direct constraint and overall ceiling) and this is shown to be justified on various grounds.

It is argued that under budget ratcheting, the cost of reporting positive transitory earnings surprises outweigh the short-term benefits of the current period bonus. The influence of budget ratcheting in a firm on the discretionary powers of the managers' are studied.

SYNOPSIS: Analysis in this study demonstrates how differences in strategy can be incorporated into evaluations and comparisons of financial statements of charitable organizations. The ratio of program spending to total [...]

This article examines the role of federal agency budget officers and their responsibilities from the author's own perspective and experience. The article suggests that it is inadequate to standardize the role of an agency budget officer other than that used by the agency head to determine if he or she is satisfied with the budget processes in the agency.

Proposals to shore up Social Security using future budget surpluses neglect to mention that Social Security itself produces these surpluses. Moreover, the projected surpluses are dwarfed by Social Security's present [...]

Like the bank notes that circulated in this country from 1863 to 1913, stored-value cards substitute the liabilities of private banks for government and central-bank liabilities. This shift may have important implications for the federal budget, the money supply, and monetary policy., Stored-value cards are among the most interesting payments innovations of recent years. Balances on these cards can typically be transferred without involving a depository institution directly. In this respect, the [...]

An interesting debate has emerged in the literature surrounding the temporal relationship between government expenditures and government revenues and its impact on the U.S. federal budget deficit. In this regard, [...]

Unexpected revenue shortfalls that occur during budget execution create serious problems for public agencies and programs. This is especially true for agencies and programs that rely upon a single source of revenue. This article implements a revenue monitoring process that combines ideas from statistical process control and exploratory data analysis into a spreadsheet environment. The methodology builds on principles used to monitor manufacturing processes. This simple application helps public managers detect revenue surpluses and deficits early enough in the budget execution process to take corrective action. The methodology also adapts to the data problems and avoids many of the pitfalls that arise when using 'real world' budget data. An example of the benefits of this methodology is offered using an example of a state agency funded by a single revenue source.

A regulatory budget would require the federal government to treat compliance costs incurred by the private sector as if they were incurred by the government, without requiring the government to actually assume those costs. For example, EPA could be given a regulatory compliance budget of say $80 billion in FY98. A regulatory budget would provoke an annual debate in Congress on the size of EPA's or OSHA's budget. Such a debate would force the proponents to weigh the benefits and costs of various regulatory programs, something now lacking in the political process. Interest in a regulatory budget reflects the slight gains in the quality of regulatory decision making resulting from mandatory regulatory review. It is now apparent that better information about the costs, benefits, and distributional consequences of regulation will not automatically improve regulatory decision making - although it would not hurt.

The Republic of Korea has been widely acknowledged as one of the few success stories of economic development in the second half of the twentieth century. The state has had a large role in guiding the economic development through policies and subsidization. However, with political democratization and economic liberalization, the politico-economic context of Korea's public finance policy began to change dramatically. The purpose of this article is to analyze how Korea's public finance policy has changed under the newly installed democracy. It specifically discusses the public finance and budgeting policies during the Roh Tae Woo administration (1988-1992) and the Kim Young Sam administration (1993 to the present).

The work of Jesse Burkhead continues to have great relevance today. Its germaneness could be taken as an indictment of how little progress has been made in federal budgeting in the past half century, but it also says a great deal about Burkhead's insights and the lasting legacy of his work. This article discusses some of Burkhead's ideas on the use of the federal budget and their pertinence to the budget issues of today, including the role of the federal government in the economy, budgetary relations between presidents and Congresses, and the role of performance information in budgeting.

* The budget does not offer any incentive to the 'crisis ridden' textile industry (the spinners). However, it offers reduction of duty on specialized textile machinery for the value-added sector. [...]

Budget 1996-97 and its implications were discussed at Tehrik-e-Tamee-e-Nau-Pakistan a non political forum. Noted economists took part in discussion. There was consensus among the participants that government expenditure can be [...]

* The budget has no relation whatsoever with the ground realities in Pakistan * The defence expenditure is more than twice what it was at the beginning of 1990's. * [...]

If Congress and the President can agree that they need to balance the budget, why are they still fighting over how to implement their goal? The continuing debate is not [...]

Federal Budget 1995-96 The federal budget for 1995-96, with a total outlay of Rs.434 billion, had a smooth sailing in the National Assembly. The Opposition chose to stay out. With [...]

The National Performance Review (NPR) proposes the development of mission-driven, results-oriented budgets, the incorporation of monetary targets and incentives in the budgets, and the use of internal markets and contracting-out to encourage competition. Moreover, it suggests that the legislative budget process should be made simpler, more comprehensible and more coherent. However, the NPR is not able to discuss how these proposals can be practiced. The present budgets, administrative controls and financial management of the federal government are greatly different from those the NPR is calling for.

Incrementalism has a normative bias for moderation since it counsels moderation in claims of the good that may be accomplished and the evils that should be shunned. There should be moderation in social experiments, and the learning process must not be mere leaps of faith. There should be moderation in what should be expected from political representatives and from each other. Lawmakers who aim to do more than they are capable of doing and citizens who brutally judge politicians should consider the insights of incrementalism a useful warning or guide for budgeting theory.

Aaron Wildavsky's work is rooted in the idea of budgeting as politics. Wildavsky isolated the study of budgeting from its managerial leanings. He considered comparative budgeting as comparative politics and equated the history of budgeting with political history. However, political legitimacy in budgetary decision making has not permeated normative budgeting literature, especially outside the US. Still, the comparative and historical research has brought fulfillment in the challenge of explorations into the unknown.

Whereas the U.S. budget and deficit projections report government receipts and expenditures for only a year at a time, generational accounts reveal the long-term implications of prevailing fiscal policies for intergenerational wealth distribution. The accounts for 1992, which include the effects of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, indicate that a sizable imbalance remains: Under current policy, those born in 1992 will pay approximately 36 percent of their lifetime income in net taxes, while future generations will give up an average of 82 percent. Receipts and expenditures projected under the administration's health care reform proposal would reduce this imbalance by about half.

The transformation from a command to a market economy in the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic between 1989 and 1992 required the replacement of one model of budgeting and fiscal management with another. However, macroeconomic management was complicated by the nature of the federal structure. The federal budget and the republic budgets were conceptualized as the state budget, and although balances were expressed as part of the federal budget, they actually represented the balances of the state budget as a whole.

An analysis of the case of budgetary reforms in Spain is presented. It is shown that Spanish attempts to reform budgeting and financial management have been unrealistic. The Ministry for Economy and Finance (MEF) has not been successful with new budget reforms, revisions on spending classification and structures and amendments for accounting and auditing regulations. Thus, Spanish budgetary reforms exhibited minimal impact.

The public budgeting system of Greece exhibits a disparity between the 1970s and the 1980s. The transition from a surplus decade to a deficit one is attributed to increased public spending on debt service, subsidies and grants, pensions and social security and government administration. Forecasts on the economic situation of Greece are unfavourable if the government's spending policy is not revised.

Growing public interest on the US federal budget has intensified the search of budgeting practitioners and researchers for ways to explain current developments in the area of federal budgeting using existing models. 'Top down' budgeting and 'budgeting by aggregates' are two phenomena that have come to serve as common explanations for current budgeting patterns. The term 'top down' budgeting refers to the macro approach to budgeting that considers the 'big picture' with regards to its objectives and spending. The 'budgeting by aggregates' approach requires that the budget committees of both the House and the Senate concentrate their attention on each of the functional categories of the budget. These two concepts, however, are quite old and have limited explanatory power. Several proposals are offered for a better understanding of the federal budgetary process.

The main objective of the Portuguese Budget Law for 2005 is to prevent or minimize tax avoidance. Other aspects and measures in the said budget law are also discussed.

The salient provisions contained in Chancellor Gordon Brown's pre-budget report as presented on December 2, 2004 are discussed. The main issues addressed were clamping of tax-avoidance, replacement of schedular system, and some provisions relating to small businesses.