Publication: Carry-overs or leftovers
Master data
Title: | Carry-overs or leftovers |
Subtitle: | Tackling (wasteful) spend-downs at the central government level |
Abstract: | Year-end spend-downs have received a lot of attention in public policy and public administration, and a number of budgeting and accounting reforms have been made to tackle this issue. While carry-overs have been thought to be a remedy, their effect remains empirically under-investigated. This paper applies a mixed-method approach to provide empirical evidence for year-end spending surges, and to analyse the effect of changing carry-over rules in Austria. The authors uncover the reasons behind spend-downs: uncertainty about carry-overs and their use, and the risk of losing unspent appropriations and efficiency savings seem to explain year-end spend-downs. The findings offer support for prior calls in the academic literature to take time and volume limitations into account when designing and implementing carry-over rules. The evidence presented here has important implications for policy-makers and managers. Using the case of Austria, this paper investigates year-end spend-downs in government, and one of the most common ‘remedies’—carry-overs. Unrestricted carry-overs are likely to jeopardize aggregate fiscal targets, and highly restrictive rules about carry-over can lead to a loss of trust between central government entities and the ministry of finance. Surprisingly, carry-over rules themselves have led to year-end spend-downs. The authors explain the criteria/limitations that policy-makers, treasury officials, and financial directors and managers in central government departments and agencies need to consider when designing and implementing carry-over rules. |
Keywords: | Budgeting and accounting reform, carry-overs, central level, spend-downs, wasteful year-end spending |
Publication type: | Article in journal (Authorship) |
Publication date: | 22.05.2019 (Print) |
Published by: |
Public Money & Management
Public Money & Management
(
Taylor & Francis;
)
to publication |
Title of the series: | - |
Volume number: | 39 |
Issue: | 6 |
First publication: | Yes |
Version: | - |
Page: | pp. 393 - 400 |
Versionen
Keine Version vorhanden |
Publication date: | |
ISBN (e-book): | - |
eISSN: | - |
DOI: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2019.1583909 |
Homepage: | - |
Open access |
|
Publication date: | 22.05.2019 |
ISBN: | - |
ISSN: | - |
Homepage: | - |
Authors
Sanja Korac (internal) |
Birgit Moser (internal) |
Paolo Rondo-Brovetto (internal) |
Iris Saliterer (internal) |
Assignment
Organisation | Address | ||
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Fakultät für Wirtschafts- und Rechtswissenschaften
Institut für Öffentliche Betriebswirtschaftslehre
|
AT - A-9020 Klagenfurt |
Categorisation
Subject areas | |
Research Cluster | No research Research Cluster selected |
Citation index |
Information about the citation index: Master Journal List
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Peer reviewed |
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Publication focus |
Classification raster of the assigned organisational units:
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working groups | No working group selected |
Cooperations
Organisation | Address | ||
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Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
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DE - 79085 Freiburg im Breisgau |
Research activities
Projects: | No related projects |
Publications: | No related publications |
Events: | No related events |
Lectures: | No related lectures |