Top-Down Budgeting—An Instrument to Strengthen Budget Management / Gösta Ljungman.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

Ljungman, Gösta.

Series:

IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2009/243

IMF Working Papers

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (48 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This paper examines the rationale for a top-down approach to budget preparation and approval, and discusses some factors that have to be considered when reorienting the budget process along these lines. The paper argues that the sequence in which budgetary decisions are taken matters, and that a strong top-down approach strengthens fiscal discipline and improves policy prioritization and coordination. Top-down budgeting also alters the division of roles and responsibilities between the central budget authority and line ministries, and requires that the process of determining the total expenditure level, sectoral allocations and individual appropriations is clarified. Finally, the paper argues that strong top-down elements in the parliamentary budget voting process can be effective in addressing the risk of excessive and unsustainable amendments during budget approval.

Contents:

Cover Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; I. Introduction; II. Top-Down versus Bottom-Up; A. Bottom-Up Process; B. Strengthening Fiscal Discipline Through a Top-Down Process; 1. Budgeting as a Game; C. Are Top-Down or Bottom-Up Mutually Exclusive?; 2. Where Top-Down Meets Bottom-Up; D. Does a Top-Down Approach Reduce Aggregate Expenditure?; E. Improving Sectoral Efficiency; F. Empirical Evidence of the Benefits of Top-Down Budgeting; III. Top-Down Budgeting in Practice; A. Introducing a Top-Down Process; B. Establishing the Overall Expenditure Limit

C. The Process of Sector Allocations3. Establishing the Total Expenditure Level in Switzerland; 4. Cabinet Budget Meetings in Sweden; D. The Mandate of Sector Ministers; IV. Top-Down Voting Procedures in Parliament; A. The Role and Risk of Parliamentary Approval of the Budget; B. A Top-Down Approval; 5. Top-Down Parliamentary Approval in Norway; V. Summary and Conclusion; References; Footnotes

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786613827418

9781462343652

1462343651

9781452774275

1452774277

9781283514965

1283514966

9781451990270

1451990278

OCLC:

870244742