Curbing Public Expenditure: Current Trends
Abstract
Nearly every OECD country has fated a
scissors crisis in public finance since the worldwide depression
of the mid-t97os; in slow growth economics public spending
has been rising faster than tax revenues. I n response, a great
variety of methods havc been employcd to control public spending.
Governments have sought to: impose global ceilings on spending;
modify indexation rules; decentralize decremental decisions
among government agencies; improve cash flow management; devise
balanced packages; introduce'new constitutional rules; provide incentives
for retrenchment; and privatize public sector activities. Efforts to
impose cuts in spending have been directed at the bureaucracy; transfer
payments; subsidies; local and regional government; and quangos. The
conclusion emphasizes that retrenchment policy presupposes a shift in
the balance of power betwecn guardians and spenders.
Contents
1. Curbing Public Expenditures: Current
Trends.
Journal of Public Policy vol. 5 (1985) p. 23-67.
2. From Expansion to Restraint: Recent Developments
in Budgeting. In The Relevante of Public Finance for Policy-Making.
Proceedings of the 41st Congress of the International Institute of
Public Finance. Madrid 1985. P. 307-320.
3. Rational Decremental Budgeting: Elements
of an Expenditure Policy for the 1980s.
Policy Sciences vol. 14 (1981) p. 49-58.
4. Public Policy Innovation in a Zero-Grovth
Economy: a Scandinavian Perspective. International Social
Science Journal, vol. 31 (1979) p. 696-707.
5. Good Cuts, Bad Cuts: The Need for
Expenditure Analysis in Decremental Budgeting.
Scandinavian Political Studies, vol. 7 (1984) p. 241-259.
6. The Scissors Crisis in Public Finance.
Policy Sciences, vol. 15 (1983) p. 205-224.
Notes
References
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