Public and private sector decision making is studied with an experiment. The study compares decision making in a tax-supported general purpose governmental agency with that done by a business firm selling to a market, using a simulation to capture differences in the preferences and practices of mid-level managers working in the two sectors. The simulation calls for participating managers to ass...

Public budget is the engine that drives any economy; thus, budget transparency contributes to shaping the political process and government performance. The current study examines the relationship between budget transparency (measured by Open Budget Index (OBI)) and governance quality (measured by Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI)). The study covers four years – 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012 – ...

We present a model in which a conservative incumbent with preferences for low public spending can strategically run a budget deficit to prevent the left-wing opposition candidate from choosing high public spending if elected, and possibly also to ensure his own reelection. We find that the incumbent never manipulates the opposition candidate’s public spending if he can ensure his reelection; an...

ONVERSUS OFF-BUDGET PROVISIONS In most healthcare reform proposals, Human explained at the National Rural Health Association's annual conference last May, provisions that would benefit rural areas are on budget rather than off budget. Provisions that are off budget such as increases in payments through taxes, through Medicare, or through employer payments—are self-financing and thus perhaps not...

For most developing and transition countries, the integration of current and capital (or “development”) budgets is a major step towards improved budget management and more effective public finance institutions. Moving to a unified budget, however, can be a technically and managerially demanding task that involves legislative, institutional, budget presentation and expenditure management issues....