International experiences informing federal budget reforms in the USA: exploring accruals, transparency, fiscal rules, and multi-year budgeting

Juan Pablo Martinez Guzman and Philip G. Joyce

Public Money & Management, 2022, vol. 42, issue 6, 431-441

Abstract: Whether the bar is as high as being fiscally sustainable, or as low as agreeing on a budget every year, the US federal budget process has not been able to meet it. While budget processes cannot deliver results in the absence of political will, the reforms proposed in this paper would facilitate informed decision-making and put pressure on myopic politicians. The reforms include, first, instituting accrual appropriations only for liabilities where long-term costs are significant. Second, increasing accountability by making budget decisions more accessible to the public. Third, shifting away from impractical fiscal rules and towards pragmatic and transparent fiscal goals.ABSTRACTIn recent years, the US government has been unable to satisfy even the most basic conditions of a budgeting process. In the 40 years since the last comprehensive federal budget reform, many countries have enacted innovative solutions. The authors analyse the lessons that international experiences have for the USA. They conclude that introducing partial accrual budgeting, producing a citizen’s budget, and eliminating fiscal rules could improve the realization of long-term costs, increase accountability, and limit the use of fiscal sustainability as a bargaining tool.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09540962.2020.1795367 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:pubmmg:v:42:y:2022:i:6:p:431-441

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RPMM20

DOI: 10.1080/09540962.2020.1795367

Access Statistics for this article

Public Money & Management is currently edited by Michaela Lavender

More articles in Public Money & Management from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().