The Quality of Budget Execution and Its Correlates
What determines the quality of budget execution around the world, measured in terms of a government's ability to accurately hit its own revenue and expenditure targets? The answers could be relevant to the topics of macroeconomic stability, na...
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Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/10/18403816/quality-budget-execution-correlates http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16871 |
Summary: | What determines the quality of budget
execution around the world, measured in terms of a
government's ability to accurately hit its own revenue
and expenditure targets? The answers could be relevant to
the topics of macroeconomic stability, national development,
public service delivery, and political reputation. This
paper takes a step toward finding answers through the
exploration of a new database of budgets and budget outcomes
and potential cross-country correlates of budget execution
in levels and in composition. Few countries within the data
sample execute their budgets well, in levels or in
composition. Expenditure deviations are positively but
rather loosely correlated with revenue deviations. Within
this broad tendency, there is considerable variation in
behavior not only across countries, but also across time
within countries. In explaining the cross-country
variations, the data confirm traditional drivers for common
pool behavior while also supporting constructive roles for
political institutions and the technical capacity for public
financial management. This is good news for reform minded governments. |
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