Trends in Fiscal Transparency: Evidence from a New Database of the Coverage of Fiscal Reporting

Rachel Wang, Timothy Irwin () and Lewis Murara

No 2015/188, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: Although there are several measures of fiscal transparency, none provides satisfactory information on certain issues of macroeconomic relevance, including whether fiscal data are available for all of general government, whether the government reports a balance sheet, and whether spending and revenue are reported on a cash or accrual basis. Drawing on government finance statistics reported to the IMF, this paper presents a new database of fiscal transparency for 186 countries in 2003–13 and derives from it indices of the overall comprehensiveness of fiscal statistics as well as specific indices of the coverage of public institutions, fiscal flows, and fiscal stocks, respectively. It finds evidence of gradual improvement, most notably in the coverage of institutions, but most countries’ reporting remains far from comprehensive

Keywords: WP; government; government operation; country; central government; government Finance Statistics Manual; public finance; budgets; accounts; fiscal transparency; fiscal reporting; government finance statistics; General government; local government; government assets; government statistics; government's account; budgetary central government; correlation coefficient; balance-sheet subtotal; Financial statements; Stocks; Europe; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37
Date: 2015-08-05
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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