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This study investigates the relationship between different levels of state balanced budget laws and state borrowing costs. Using federal guidelines for state balanced budget law classifications, this author inserted dichotomous variables in an empirical model of state borrowing costs. Ordinary Least Squares Regression is utilized to determine which balanced budget laws are recognized in state interest costs. The results indicate a significant relationship between the most restrictive levels of balanced budget laws and state borrowing costs. The strongest balanced budget laws are associated with lower interest costs while the weakest budget laws are associated with higher costs. It appears that taxpayers in states with weaker balanced budget amendments may not be as protected against excessive government growth as those in states with the most stringent balancing requirements.

This article examines the relationship between budgeting and strategic management, especially in terms of strategic planning. Strategic management presents managers with a process for making decisions and guiding a firm's actions, while budgeting provides information on funding and accountability. The article takes the position that the two processes should be tightly integrated as they serve complimentary but distinct purposes.

The article develops a model of how strategic management and budgeting should be intertwined. The model describes a cascading process by which a firm's general strategic direction and financial condition drive tactical decisions and resources allocations at lower organizational levels.

The article discusses ideas on how the budgeting and strategic management might be administered so as to have the best impact on firm performance. A key observation in the article is that overall firm performance is likely to be improved when the two types of planning are use properly. The article argues that disconnections between the two will result in budgets that hinder implementation of the firm's strategies or strategies which cannot be supported by the firm's finances.

The article provides several ideas for managers on how to achieve better integration between strategic planning and budgeting. They include creating a cascading planning process, in which strategic and financial decisions progressive move down through an organization's hierarchy, establishing standing strategic review committees, using rolling budgets, and the proper application of available technological tools.

Previous research has indicated that municipalities regularly collect performance data. A survey of medium-to-large southeastern cities supports that conclusion, but cautions that limited emphasis is placed on performance during budget construction. Prior-year expenditures drive the budget at the preparation phase. Performance information is added at the presentation phase for explication and to conform norms promulgated by professional budgeting organizations.

The purpose of the study was to analyze how COVID-19 pandemic affects regional budgets and regional fiscal resilience in Russia.

The research article is structured as follows. Based on the official data from the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Treasure and the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, first, the state of Russian regional budgets before and under COVID-19 is analyzed. Second, due to the increase of regional spending commitments under pandemic the regional debt dependence is reviewed. Third, anticrisis fiscal measures which have been taken to combat the negative impact of COVID-19 are discussed.

In general, 2020 may be the most difficult for regional budgets, although the results of the first quarter do not show such tension. However, the impact of COVID-19 on budget indicators is ambiguous because the economic crisis of 2020 is dual, including the crisis in the oil markets. The pandemic has become a unique global phenomenon, the effect of which is difficult to identify and interpret outside of the economic aspects of life.

The value of the article is based on the overview of the state of regional budgets before and under COVID-19, on the analysis of how pandemic affects fiscal resilience of the regional budgets and on the forecast of how serious the volume of lost revenues are going to be.

The purpose of this article is to challenge the balanced budget practices of U.S. state governments and offer alternatives that may lead to better fiscal, economic and policy outcomes. We contend that the norm of balance may be leading U.S. states to make fiscal decisions that result in less-than-ideal outcomes, especially during economic downturns.

This is a normative article. We examine the scholarly evidence regarding balanced budget practices to assess the appropriateness of balanced budget norms. We also examine the fiscal rules followed by Eurozone countries to draw potential lessons for U.S. states.

We conclude that state governments should move away from strict norms of budget balance and seek more flexible approaches. We suggest that instead of following strict rules and norms of balance, U.S. states should consider implementing escape clauses, debt and deficit ceilings, and fiscal councils. We also suggest that the Federal Reserve be open to lending directly to states during fiscal crises to ensure that states have access to affordable credit.

The balanced budget norm has become ingrained in U.S. state budgeting practices, so much so that public officials and scholars alike rarely question it. The novel contribution of our article is to question this practice in a systematic way and propose alternative approaches.

This article examines the effect of the customer focus (CF) group of competencies, which includes communication and negotiation skills, on project performance as measured by reaching the internal and the overall budget, the quality, and the deadline goals.

The multiple regression model was based on a dataset from Trimo, an engineering and production company of prefabricated buildings.

The inverted U-shaped relationship of the CF group has been proven to exist with all project goals.

The present study provides a starting-point for further empirical research on the international construction sector, projects, teams, and competence research.

The chapter is devoted to the factors aimed at optimizing the partnership of public and private sectors in the sphere of public infrastructure development. In modern conditions of economic slowdown and budget consolidation in Russia, the infrastructure has become the most important driver of economic growth and public–private partnership (PPP) – the most perspective form of cooperation of public and private investors of infrastructure projects. PPP interpretation as a structural relationship of economic system allows the authors to model optimal combination of formal and informal institutions in order to stimulate long-term economic growth. It becomes promising to model replacement of budget funds by private investment to ensure positive impact on the Russian development despite the budget consolidation. It could only be achieved in the case of formal institutionalization of appropriate conditions for private investors as to low transactional costs and attractive financial parameters. There have been determined some PPP standards connected with public infrastructure projects in order to reduce capital expenditures of the budget funds and increase the inflow of private investment. The authors have managed to obtain model estimates and graphic interpretation of government expenditures’ efficiency increase that could help to structure the fiscal conditions to induce positive multiplier effect as a result of PPP forms improvement in the public infrastructure development.

Latin American financial executives are emerging as strategic planners. In this chapter some linkages between strategy and finance in the case of Latin American corporations are shown to guide decision-makers in gaining insights when applying recognized methods of capital budgeting. Results of a survey of corporate executives shed light on the criteria used in corporations of the region to evaluate investment projects, make capital budgeting decisions, consider adjustments needed, and make an appraisal of the overall interaction of factors related to strategic capital budgeting.

Indonesia is an ethnically diverse nation with large interregional poverty differences and variations in regional population density.¹ However, under Suharto's highly centralized “New Order” regime, local service delivery agencies were administrative instruments of remote national ministries and unresponsive to the individual priorities and problems of varied local communities. The abrupt nature of the 2001 decentralization has been interpreted by some as an insurance policy against fragmentation following the disturbances at the close of the highly centralized Suharto era.²

Participation is a key concept in budgeting practice and research. While extant literature primarily focuses on the antecedents and modifiers of participation, here we focus on the measurement of participation.

Building on theoretical and empirical research on user involvement and influence from the information systems, decision–making, and organizational justice literature, we develop a new theoretical perspective on budgetary participation. This new perspective recognizes the complexity of participation and separates it into three dimensions: situational participation, intrinsic involvement, and influence. We provide evidence of these new insights by testing hypotheses based on the model via results from a survey.

Survey results from middle managers indicate that our three separate dimensions of budgetary participation impact motivation and satisfaction in different ways. Specifically, situational participation does not have a direct impact on either motivation or satisfaction; intrinsic involvement impacts both satisfaction and motivation; and influence impacts satisfaction, but does not impact motivation.

These new insights can enhance future budgeting research as well as help managers design participative budgeting processes to improve employee motivation and satisfaction to hopefully enhance organizational performance.