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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature and comparability of budget balance (surplus/deficit) numbers headlined by the Australian Commonwealth Government and the governments of the six Australian States and the two Australian Territories. It does this in the context of the transition to Australian accounting standard AASB 1049 Whole of Government and General Government Sector Financial Reporting.

A case study research method is adopted, based on a content/documentary analysis of the headline budget balance numbers in the general government sector budget statements of each of the nine governments for the eight financial years from 2004-2005 to 2011-2012.

Findings indicate some variation in the measurement bases adopted and a number of departures from the measurement bases prescribed in the reporting frameworks, including AASB 1049. Findings also reveal that none of the nine governments have headlined a full accrual based budget balance number since the implementation of AASB 1049 in 2008.

While the study focuses on the Australian general government sector environment, it has significant implications in highlighting the ambiguity in the government budget balance numbers presented and the monitoring and information asymmetry problems that can arise. Research findings have wider relevance internationally in highlighting issues arising with the public sector adoption of accrual accounting.

The paper highlights the manner in which governments have been selective in the manner in which they present important budget aggregates. This has important practical and social implications, as the budget balance number is one of the most important measures used to evaluate a government’s fiscal management and responsibility.

The paper represents the first detailed examination of aspects of the effect of the transition to AASB 1049.

This paper proposes the concept of sustainability as a forward looking strategic intent of the organizations, which requires financing capabilities and investment. We structure the relationship between financial capabilities, product-led and process-led innovation approaches and corporate financial performance, in particular, we attempt to answer an important question: is sustainability-corporate performance relationship contingent upon the access and use of the financial resources?

We used a sample of Top 100 Sustainable global companies and tested several hypotheses regarding the likely financing policies of sustainable firms underlying their product-led and process-led sustainability approaches and financial performance.

Our results show that investment in R&D and capital expenditures provide a reasonable prediction of financing strategy chosen by the sample companies. Furthermore, our findings show that surplus (deficit) in financial capabilities influence the financing trajectory of the companies. Our results show that financial capabilities of companies, that is, financing choice (conservative vs. aggressive) matter for sustainable development, and sustainability-corporate performance relationship is contingent upon the use of financial resources.

These findings imply that organizations should rethink themselves and be encouraged to evaluate their own progress on the path of sustainability in terms of protection of the environment and the advancement of those communities in which they operate.

This paper develops a classification of global companies’ sustainable development approaches using their investment in R&D and capital expenditures. Furthermore, we also develop classification of companies using their financing capabilities, that is, surplus (deficit) to highlight their impact on the sustainable-corporate performance link.

This study assesses the change in states’ financial condition by examining their financial data in fiscal years (FY) 2003 and 2004. It explores and explains how much the change was, how it occurred, and whether and how closely the change might respond to states’ socioeconomic development. The study finds that states’ financial condition varied significantly from FY 2003 to FY 2004. Changes in different aspects of financial condition are interrelated, although these changes may not occur simultaneously at the same pace. The change in financial condition may result from the multi-year cumulative socioeconomic development in personal income and employment, but not in population. The impact of personal income and employment on financial condition of a government is likely long term; it may take 3-4 years for the growth in personal income and employment to benefit a government’s financial condition. The results also suggest that the cumulative improvement of personal income and employment for consecutive years prior to a fiscal year is more likely to improve the financial condition of that year than a personal income or employment increase that follows an up-and-down pattern of growth. These findings can be used to develop effective strategies to improve financial conditions in government.

The Hong Kong government emphasizes very much the importance of achieving the “financial stability” objective, and has been very successful in controlling expenditure growth and in accumulating fiscal reserves. This remarkable performance is attributed to adhering consistently to budgetary guidelines. Managing the financial budgets through budgetary guidelines is a unique feature of the Hong Kong fiscal system. Discusses the role of budgetary guidelines in the Hong Kong fiscal system, and reviews the evolution of these budgetary guidelines since the early 1970s. It turns out that the guideline on expenditure growth is the most important budgetary guideline. Fiscal performance is assessed against these budgetary guidelines. With the financial stability objective having long been achieved, strict adherence to these budgetary guidelines would unduly constrain social and economic developments in Hong Kong. Recommends comprehensive review of the role and function of these budgetary guidelines.

An exciting opportunity that many advanced industrial democracies faced in the late 1990s was the movement from budgetary deficit to surplus. This came after years of persistent deficits. Traditional decisionmaking theories such as budgetary incrementalism failed to explain this longrun relationship, since it has been inherently a short-run theory. This paper uses rational expectations theory to demonstrate its relationship to budgetary decision-making reforms and the deficit (surplus) for Canada, the UK and the United States. The results demonstrated that there was an intertemporal budget constraint in operation in the three countries, and decision-makers at the macro level used rational expectations in the formulation of their annual budget. In the theory, budget actors strived to balance their budget, but did so over the longrun as opposed to the short-run incrementalist interpretation.

Do state governments have the ability to predict the onset, duration, and depth of structural fiscal crisis? The State of Indiana had a particularly difficult time recovering from the recession that began in April 2001. Painful expenditure restraint and substantive revenue increases were necessary simply to “break even” from 2002 through 2006. Could early warning signs have permitted more timely actions to avert the subsequent pain? Using monthly cash receipts and balances, we test whether these data hold predictive value in forecasting the onset and severity of fiscal imbalance. The evidence strongly suggests that the structural character of the 2001-02 deficit and its subsequent depth was discernible in the cash receipts stream early enough to take ameliorating action. That the state did not do so reflects budgetary psychology more than the deficit’s predictability.

This paper analyzes the impact of economic, social and political factors on municipal debt behavior. With this aim, we have obtained a stratified random sample of 130 cities during a five-year period. These data have been used to configure a micro panel to obtain accurate estimates and to control for problems such as unobserved heterogeneity. The main conclusion obtained from this process is that non-financial surplus/deficit, financial independence, capital expenditures, and capital revenues are the variables that best explain the indebtedness of this type of entities.

The purpose of this paper is to model the determinants of executive compensation of school district superintendents using structural equation models (SEM). These chief executives have unique characteristics and function in a complex environment, due in part to the political nature of the position. SEM has not been used widely to test archival data using economic theory. The complex environment of superintendent salaries is a test case for the viability of the SEM approach. The success of SEM depends on the development of a strong theoretical base. The theory developed assumes that compensation should be based, in part, on fiscal and academic performance, indicating that accounting-related information including performance measures should be important in this context. In this case, a complex theoretical structure was reduced to a relatively simple model: superintendent salary can be best explained with three direct effects (enrollment, teacher salary, and the local tax percentage) plus indirect effects by including two additional factors (white percentage and percent economically disadvantaged). Performance did not influence salary, suggesting that future superintendent compensation contracts should consider financial- and education-based performance measures.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the methodologies used to evaluate major events. It aims to establish the most practically‐relevant methodology for analysing the economic impact of routinely‐held major events and to identify the key methodological issues for future consideration.

The paper draws on empirical research undertaken by the Sport Industry Research Centre using the direct expenditure approach (DEA).

The DEA is the most pragmatic and cost‐effective method for evaluating the economic impact of medium‐sized major events. However, the approach is only as robust as the quality of data utilised to derive estimates. Key emerging methodological issues are measuring attendance, consideration of direct first‐round leakage and treatment of organisational spend and event surplus/deficit.

The DEA limits the measurement of economic impact to first‐round spending associated with an event. It is not suitable for measuring large‐scale mega‐events that require a more holistic and advanced method of event evaluation.

The paper considers the methods used to evaluate events in the context of balancing academic rigour with the everyday practical realities and constraints facing event organisers and researchers. It discusses existing and emerging methodological considerations and techniques for dealing with these. The paper will be of particular interest to researchers and practitioners from the event industry carrying out or commissioning economic impact studies.