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This study aims to provide evidence of how budget officers use non-financial and accrual-based cost information in the budgeting process and how the usage of this information is influenced by financial constraints.

A randomized survey-based field experiment investigating budget officers in 546 Japanese local governments (LGs) was conducted. This allowed us to identify the budget officers' decision-making in the public sector budgeting process by creating and analyzing primary data with regression models.

We found that budget officers suppress budget amounts based on non-financial information of good performances. Under fiscal constraints, officers further reduce budget amounts using information on high accrual-based costs and poor non-financial performance.

Our survey-based field experiment allowed us to obtain primary data from officers making budget decisions. To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence that non-financial good and poor performance information and accrual-based cost information affect budget officers' decision-making under financial constrain.

This paper evaluates the economic, political and institutional determinants of variation in public investment in emerging Europe.

Panel econometrics (panel-corrected standard error, generalized least squares and the two-stage least squares) methods have been applied using annual data from 2000 to 2017 for 16 countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

Public investment was procyclical in relation to output and negatively associated with the level of public debt. Austerity episodes triggered a significant drop in public investment. Positive drifts in public investment during election periods and the negative impact of the number of cabinet seats held by left-wing parties have been captured. While no firm evidence on the impact of EU membership was found, the results show that arrangements with the IMF were strongly associated with lower public investment. Political factors were of greater importance in Central Europe and the Baltics, while institutional factors had a more significant impact in South Eastern Europe.

To foster public capital formation, it is necessary to: 1) strengthen the countercyclicality of public investment policy and to keep public debt at a low level; 2) adjust the fiscal criteria for EU membership in a manner that would enable countries to use the EU structural fund more effectively, while maintaining fiscal sustainability; 3) put a stronger emphasis on structural features of fiscal policy when designing country-level arrangements with the IMF.

The paper contributes to the literature on determinants of public investment policy by adding empirical evidence for emerging Europe countries.

Notes that macro‐economic policy faces the same challenges in both developing and post‐socialist economies: to reduce inflation while achieving or maintaining stable economic growth. Moreover, there are developing countries like Argentina which succeeded in overcoming a type of institutional chaos which comes quite close to what is to be observed in post‐socialist countries. By looking at the theoretical concept and by its implementation in Argentina, examines the main advantages and flaws of an exchange rate anchor. Shows that this is a high risk strategy for post‐socialist countries which needs radical complementary reforms in order to be effective and to minimize risks. Suggests that credibility cannot be imported.

This paper investigates the impact of state governments’ “Tax and Expenditure Limits” (TELs) on their tax progressivity and redistributive spending. A two stage least squares (2SLS) regression model of data covering 1985-2007, was employed to allow for simultaneity in the relationships between intergovernmental transfer, tax progressivity, expenditure progressivity, and labor mobility. This model tested whether high- or low income residents had paid for and benefited from these fiscal institutions. As a result we find that TELs significantly decrease tax progressivity and increase poverty rate. These two policy effects should be explicitly accounted for in the design or revision of TELs.

Despite being a global public–private partnerships (PPPs) leader, India faces a vast PPP divide at a sub-national level, wherein a few states receive the majority of PPP projects, whereas other states face severe issues in attracting PPP investments. This necessitates the identification of factors that make some states attractive to PPP investors. The purpose of this study is to construct a “PPP readiness index” at the Indian state-level, which aims to assess the readiness of states for the diffusion of PPPs.

Using a quantitative method on secondary data, the study scores 17 Indian states on dimensions such as experience with PPPs, physical infrastructure, financial sector development, market conditions, institutional quality and political stability and fiscal constraints for each of the years during 2009–2018. Principal component analysis is used for assigning weights to the dimensions, thereby arriving at the composite index.

Results highlight that Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra offer the most favorable environment for PPPs to flourish. In contrast, Jharkhand and Bihar are laggards because they score the least and have limited PPP experience.

The index will assist the private sector in conducting a comparative analysis between state-specific PPP arrangements, thereby enabling them to make informed decisions prior to forging PPP arrangements. Further, the index will help the state governments in improving their PPP readiness by following the policies of the leading states.

Improvement in PPP readiness of the states will enable higher PPP investments in infrastructure, thereby reducing infrastructure deficits. This, in turn, will lead to economic growth, development and an improvement in the quality of life.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that comprehensively analyzes the PPP readiness at a sub-national level in India.

In view of the significance of public–private partnerships (PPPs) as a tool for bridging infrastructure deficits, it becomes imperative to study its determinants. The objective of this paper is to empirically study the determinants of PPPs in India at a subnational level, in terms of both number and value of PPP projects.

This study investigates the determinants of value and number of Indian PPPs at a subnational level for the period 2008–2017. The determinants are analyzed using two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) and negative binomial regression. Select correlates examined are market size, fiscal compulsions, institutional quality, financial sector development and physical infrastructure.

The results indicate that fiscal compulsions, financial sector development and physical infrastructure influence PPPs favorably, whereas low institutional quality impacts PPPs adversely. A pertinent finding of this study is that the past value of PPPs lowers the current year's PPP value.

The findings are expected to assist subnational governments and policymakers in formulating policies that attract more PPP projects (in terms of both value and number).

This is the first study that analyzes the determinants of infrastructure PPPs at a subnational level in India.

Despite being a global public–private partnerships (PPPs) leader, the Asian region is characterised by a wide PPP-divide, wherein select countries attract majority of PPP projects, while other countries fail to attract the requisite PPP investments. Against this background, the purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of PPP projects in Asia.

Using quantitative methods on secondary data, this study analyses the macroeconomic determinants of value and number of PPPs in Asia for the period 2010–2019. The methodology relies on panel fixed effects, random effects, two-step system generalised method of moments and negative binomial regression.

Results underline the importance of the country’s experience with PPPs, physical infrastructure, financial sector development, market conditions, institutional quality and political stability in attracting PPP projects.

Identification of the determinants of PPPs will assist private investors in making informed decisions related to the selection of countries for PPP investments, thereby increasing the likelihood of a project’s success.

The results are expected to enable countries to formulate policies aimed at attracting higher PPP investments, thereby propelling economic development and improvement in the quality of life.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first such study that comprehensively analyses the determinants of both value of PPP investments and number of PPP projects for Asian countries.

India embarked on economic reforms in July 1991, in the wake of a balance of payments crisis. In this article, an attempt is made to review two books and a set of World Bank reports concerning the progress of these reforms. Issues concerning economic policy, impact of the reforms on poverty, sectoral issues relating to agriculture, industry and infrastructure are briefly discussed. As reforms enter a more difficult phase, several challenges remain. Some of these fall under the “economic agenda” of measures needed to maintain economic growth; others can be termed the “development agenda” – of improving human development. Progress with regard to the former is not sufficient to produce results concerning the latter.

This paper aims to contend that the circle of investigation into overruns cannot be complete unless the established critical failure factors are matched against their respective mitigating measures to avert the overruns. Extant literature is replete with factors that engender cost and time overruns within the design and construction phase. The constraint is the lack of a scientific approach in establishing a tackling mechanism to address the root causes and stakeholder responsibilities.

The research is based on nine unique grand factors previously established and reported in literature about the Ghanaian Construction Industry. A focus group discussion convened through a purposive sampling technique led to the establishment of a list of mitigating measures and strategies.

The paper established a checklist of 114 mitigating measures categorised into preventive, predictive and corrective approaches. Additionally, several short to medium term key strategies have been recommended to avert the occurrence of cost and time overruns.

The mitigating measures can be adopted as a checklist of good practice to help practitioners enhance the effectiveness of project budget and schedule control. It is also supposed to serve as a guide to practitioners in averting overruns through predictive, preventive and/or corrective causes. A unique approach in averting the occurrence of cost and time overruns.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the changes in higher education under the new configuration of resources based on the income structure of universities located in the Central Federal District (CFD). Particular focus is given to the changes in the structure of public financing of higher education, considering the explicit priorities of increasing teaching staff salaries and promoting research. The study also assesses regional differentiation in financial resources for the maintenance of university property and the accumulation of funds from extra-budgetary sources.

Using statistical and economic analysis methods, the research reveals the main trends of structural changes in public funding of higher education in Russia as a whole, and the regional peculiarities of financial support in the universities of the CFD.

The results of this investigation of universities in the CFD point to inertia in the development of universities in the regions, and problems transitioning to new business models. Groups of universities in the region often lobby for the “previous rules of the game.” The results evidence a change in financial support from different income sources and in cost structures at the university level. These are the result of higher education reform and university support programs aimed at enhancing the academic and research capacity of the leading Russian universities and developing a competitive national education system.

A costs optimization policy has led to polarization of universities and reduced development opportunities for a significant proportion of regional universities. In order to maintain their properties in good condition, they have to make active efforts to seek non-budgetary funding sources against a fall in effective demand from the population.