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Revenue diversification interacting with form of government that has different management behaviors may produce a variation in the level of public spending. The purpose of this paper is to understand how revenue diversification interacts with form of government in determining the level of public spending.

A cross-sectional research design with the analysis of interaction effects was employed in order to achieve this research objective. Drawing from the economic and financial management perspectives on revenue diversification, this study proposes the following hypotheses: in the council-manager form, greater revenue diversification leads to less spending; in the mayor-council form, greater revenue diversification leads to more spending; and mayor-council governments with diversified revenues spend more than council-manager governments.

The regression results support the second and third hypotheses, but not the first hypothesis.

This study offers a robust link between revenue diversification and form of government by examining how their interaction produces a variation in the level of public spending.

In the United States, the 1993 Government Performance and Result Act (GPRA) has increased public demand for governments not only to produce and deliver public goods and services, but also to demonstrate program effectiveness, which is the ultimate goal of a public program's existence, mission, and spending. This public management approach parallels the results-oriented management, which aims to strengthen organizational effectiveness and emphasize the need to integrate all major activities and functions, an activity that will direct them toward advancing organization-wide strategic goals or fundamental policy agendas (Kettl, 1997). Managers use program outputs and outcomes as implementation benchmarks to identify implementation means or directions (Kettl, 1997). By reporting performance measurement results to the public and policy makers, public managers are held accountable for the tax-dollars spent to produce and deliver public services in the most efficient and effective way (Aristigueta, 2007). Performance measurement results, especially those related to outcome achievement, are partially useful in budget allocation from the perspective that the tax-dollars spent are tied to desirable outcomes rather than to program input costs that may or may not correspond with public desires (DuPont-Morales & Harris, 1994).

Social spending is at the forefront of the tools used to repair the damage caused by the global epidemic. However, one of the most critical questions in recent days is as follows: what are the effects of social expenditures in eliminating unemployment? The primary purpose of this article is to provide empirical evidence on the impact of social spending on chronic unemployment in the selected organization for economic co-operation and development (OECD) countries.

In this study, the data of 30 selected OECD countries between 1991 and 2018 have been compiled. First, countries have been divided into four categories according to their spending intensity to determine the effects of social spending on the long-term unemployment rate. Then, the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and the error correction models (ECM) examine the variables' short- and long-term interactions.

The author found that the change in the share of social expenditures in GDP affects chronic unemployment similarly. This finding is consistent with the results of studies in the literature dealing with the relationship between public sector size and unemployment. However, the research findings are specifically about the effects of social expenditures on chronic unemployment. In this respect, the results reflect that expenditures with passive characteristics have an expansionary effect on long-term unemployment. In addition, the progressive effect of social expenditures on chronic unemployment is increasing in countries with high expenditure intensity. In countries with relatively low spending intensity, the impact of social spending is limited to the short run and is lower.

Multiple studies have reported that public policies developed in line with the incentives of active employment and public or private sector investments reduce the unemployment rate by positively affecting the output/employment level. This study, unlike other studies, focuses on the effects of social expenditures on chronic unemployment. It also compares the effects of social spending on the long-term unemployment rate for countries with varying spending intensities. Therefore, this article tests the impact of social expenditures used against a concrete socioeconomic problem in the OECD sample. In this respect, the findings contribute to the literature by addressing the relationship between social spending and chronic unemployment.

This paper aims to assess the efficiency of public investment in West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries at both the global and sectoral level over the 2005–2015 period.

This paper estimates efficiency scores using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) models. Efficiency is divided into managerial efficiency (related to inputs management) and technological efficiency (related to production technology). A Tobit model is then used to investigate the determinants of public investment efficiency.

The findings suggest that, at the global level, WAEMU countries are less efficient than sub-Saharan African and Asian reference countries. However, the breakdown of global efficiency into managerial and technological reveals that WAEMU countries are more efficient than sub-Saharan African countries in terms of technological efficiency. Moreover, these findings are robust to nonparametric estimation. The assessment of financing sources indicates that external debt has a more positive and significant effect on public investment efficiency than internal debt does.

This paper is unique in that it disentangles managerial efficiency from the technological efficiency of public investment in WEAMU countries and highlights how financing sources of investment affect its efficiency. In terms of policy implications, the underlying message of the results is that the rules and conditions of domestic or regional debt in the WAEMU countries must be strengthened to ensure better monitoring and then better efficiency of these resources.

This paper reflects on the growing trend of engaging management consultancies in implementing operations management innovations in the public sector. Whilst the differences between public and private sector operations have been documented, there is a dearth of material detailing the impact of public sector engagements on the consultancies themselves and the operations management products and services they develop. Drawing on qualitative data, the paper aims to identify both the impact of operations management in the public sector and the impact of this engagement on the consultancies that are involved.

This paper draws on rich, qualitative data from six large management consultancies, amounting to over 48 interviews. An inductive methodology sought to identify both how consultancies have adapted their operations management products and services, and why.

The paper finds that the different context of the public sector provides consultants with considerable challenges when implementing operations management projects. The research shows that public services are often hampered by different cultures, structures, and managerial knowledge and investment patterns. Such constraints have an impact on both the projects being implemented and the relationship between consultants and clients.

There are few studies that consider the implementation of operations management in the public sector and fewer still which examine the impact of public sector engagement on the products that consultancies develop. This paper aims to develop understanding in both. At a more theoretical level, the paper contributes to considering operations management through knowledge management literature in seeking to understand how consumers of management knowledge influence its producers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate ways in which the performance management at different school management levels contributes to the performance of public schools in the Estonian general education system.

The study is based on the balanced performance management approach and focuses on performance management patterns in Estonian general education schools. At the individual, operational, and strategic performance management levels, the primary performance determinants are analysed. The study uses empirical survey data gathered from 164 schools providing upper secondary education in Estonia.

The research shows that a pupil's academic performance as the most common indicator of a school's performance influences individual goals, such as satisfaction with the quality of education and teaching in the school and the pupils' further choices and opportunities in education. The satisfaction of other interested parties such as teachers and parents is influenced by the school's strategic as well as operational performance management measures. Therefore, a school's performance management system must operate as a balanced system integrating the individual, operational and strategic performance management levels of the school.

The general limitations of survey‐based research have to be considered – the study is static in nature, although the longitudinal approach would allow assessing the dynamic aspects of performance management in public schools. In addition, it is necessary to further explore a wider set of individual, operational and strategic performance management indicators and their interconnections in the implementation of performance management in public schools.

The research findings have two main implications. First, the paper contributes to the limited knowledge about the implementation of performance management practices in public schools. Second, due to the fact that the Estonian education system is firmly based on approaches that have proven to be performance‐enhancing, the analysis provides an overview of and information about the countries that have not gone to such lengths in the restructuring of their education system.

Services provided by urban public road passenger transport companies in Portugal are associated with widely differing economic and financial outcomes. The objective of this paper is to characterize these differences and discuss the potential contribution offered by the funding model implemented (including how the services provided are being subsidized).

The data available in the management and financial reports published by the six existing Portuguese corporations whose main object is to provide a public road transport service were used to establish a set of performance indicators. The paper takes into account three dimensions: resource‐efficiency, service‐effectiveness and resource effectiveness.

The comparative analysis implemented contributes crucially to an improved understanding of the current idiosyncrasies of urban public road transportation systems in Portugal, with a special emphasis on the productivity and performance results of different public management approaches.

The originality of this paper arises from the case studies presented to support the debate on the influence of local vs central public funding approaches on Portugal's urban public road transport companies’ performance.

Proposes a comprehensive approach to support the activities of companies that provide public services. This approach consists of several steps. Defines an appropriate set of performance indicators, and the choice of an appropriate evaluation technique and its application to the services involved. Enables managers of organisations operating in public services to derive operational frameworks based on: an analysis of the information flows among different stakeholders involved in service processes; and the identification of a set of indicators allowing evaluation of the performance level in order to develop quality control systems. Presents an application of the approach to the case of the water supply service in Italy.

This study aims to identify the inputs from zakat administrators and experts needed for more efficient and effective zakat revenue generation.

Face-to-face interviews with zakat executives, administrators and experts are conducted to collect data.

The findings show three components of input required in the zakat transformation: environment, resources and history. The environmental component comprises five sub-components: companies, banks, zakat recipients, individual zakat payers and the legislative, while the resource sub-components comprise tangible and intangible resources. For history, two components, namely, achievements and challenges, need to be taken into account by the zakat administration.

This study’s main implication is that the components proposed in this study can serve as the basis for developing new strategies for improving zakat collection and distribution management to achieve a more efficient and effective level.

This study will be helpful for policymakers, especially zakat authorities, on how to enhance their administration.

The model developed in this study will help the zakat administration to reform and enhance zakat compliance and zakat revenue generation.

In this series of extracts from the concluding chapter of Acharya’s book, Asset Management: Equities Demystified, the author argues that the major factor in future developments will be legislation and regulation. But she suggests that ultimately knowledge management will be the crucial competitive advantage. “As knowledge is power”, she says, “knowledge is more powerful today than ever before”.