Strengthening Public Financial Management : Exploring Drivers and Effects
This paper explores two relationships, first between country characteristics and the quality of public financial management ('drivers'), and second between the quality of public financial management systems and expected outcomes ('ef...
Main Authors: | , , |
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Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank Group, Washington, DC
2014
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/11/20346313/strengthening-public-financial-management-exploring-drivers-effects http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20631 |
Summary: | This paper explores two relationships,
first between country characteristics and the quality of
public financial management ('drivers'), and
second between the quality of public financial management
systems and expected outcomes ('effects'). On the
influence of country characteristics, the paper investigates
economic factors (income level, growth, and resource
dependency), population size, levels and sources of revenue,
and three macro-political characteristics -- political
stability, regime type, and the presence of programmatic
parties. These characteristics jointly explain about 40
percent of the variation in the quality of public financial
management across countries. Furthermore, first-difference
analysis suggests that countries with lower initial public
financial management quality improve at a higher rate over
time. This implies that structural factors set the scene for
the likelihood of better or worse performance, but also that
there is substantial variation among countries sharing
certain characteristics and reform opportunities exist even
in unfavorable environments. Methodologically, a key
limitation is that the direction of causality cannot be
fully addressed with the types of data available. On the
effects of the performance of public financial management,
the paper finds evidence that stronger performance results
in better budget credibility, but not in lower deficits.
Furthermore, there is no clear evidence regarding
operational efficiency. The observed disconnect could be
caused by missing complementary state capacities,
measurement problems, or other issues, which need to be
explored further. Overall, the findings are consistent with
the assumption that stakeholder incentives and
constellations matter and that reform approaches combining
good technical calibration and political economy
considerations are likely to influence success in
strengthening public financial management. |
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