Finance and Public Budgets
Money lies at the heart of politics. Public budgets decide who pays and who benefits from much of what the government does. There are conflicting ideas, however, about the goals budgets should reach. Decisions on expenditures and revenues are inherently redistributive, and some judge budgets based on how well they help one or more groups in society. "Effectiveness" looks beyond allocation issues to consider whether the funds are being spent in a manner that reaches the government's goals, while efficiency considers whether the government is paying too much for the goods and services it receives and provides. Budgets should also be sustainable. These goals often conflict (the most effective policy may not be a fiscally sustainable one) and one question to ask is why some governments emphasize some goals over others. This policy area is also interested in exploring how budgets are made. Topics included under this rubric include fiscal rules, performance budgeting, top-down budgeting, multi-annual expenditure plans, and the organization of institutions within state or state-like units (e.g. fiscal federalism).
Projects
- Fiscal Governance Centre (Mark Hallerberg)
- Sovereign Debt Crisis and Crisis Management in Areas of Limited Statehood: Bargaining vs. Creditor Litigation (Henrik Enderlein)
- The Challenge of Asset Market-Oriented Fiscal Policy: National Fiscal Policies in a Global Financial System (Mark Hallerberg)
- Conference: Political Economy of International Finance (Mark Hallerberg)
- The Role of Finance Ministers and the Making of Budgets (Mark Hallerberg)
