Jim Brumby

Knowledge is a sustainable advantage and using knowledge assets can increase value within an organization. Knowledge advantage—effectively capturing and using know-how and insights in a business environment—advocates effective knowledge management and fosters its continual growth as knowledge begins to flow. Flow, however, is often uneven throughout an organization. Recent research introduces a theoretical framework. It merges three research streams— knowledge flow theory, “need knowledge” generation, and critical success factors for enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation—to examine knowledge flow dynamics in context. This case study research focuses on the procurement phase of the financial management information system (FMIS) component of a World Bank-financed project. This issue of Governance Notes presents key research findings on enabling need knowledge determinants and identifying conditions that obstruct knowledge flow as well as their implications for future FMIS ...

The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires the Crown to articulate targets for a series of fiscal variables, including net worth. Given the dramatic improvement in the fiscal position in recent years, a critical policy question relates to how (and which) measures of Crown net worth should be targeted. This paper sets out a framework for targeting Crown net worth. It does so by supplementing the GAAP-based measure with forward-looking information about spending and tax revenue. The paper argues that targeting net worth for the Crown requires the estimation of a path, rather than a static level. Editorial note: This paper was completed in September 1997 before the Treasury’s Working Paper Series was established. It represents the state of work at that time. It has been included in the series now as a useful reference point for future policy development. Readers should be aware that some aspects of the paper have been overtaken by subsequent events, and some of the issues raised have been ...

The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires the Crown to articulate targets for a series of fiscal variables, including net worth. Given the dramatic improvement in the fiscal position in recent years, a critical policy question relates to how (and which) measures of Crown net worth should be targeted. This paper sets out a framework for targeting Crown net worth. It does so by supplementing the GAAP-based measure with forward-looking information about spending and tax revenue. The paper argues that targeting net worth for the Crown requires the estimation of a path, rather than a static level.

This report is a comprehensive review of country experience with Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs) worldwide. It looks at countries both with and without MTEFs over the period 1990 to 2008 to obtain results about their impact on fiscal performance. The report is structured as follows. Chapter two provides background on what constitutes a MTEF and what it aims to achieve. It also describes the Bank's engagement with MTEFs, presents main points of debate over the experience with MTEFs, and provides a rationale for this study. Chapter three describes the key characteristics of MTEFs, explains the approach used to identify and classify them according to their stage of development, and reviews trends in their adoption. Chapter four outlines the methodological approaches used to examine the impact of MTEFs on fiscal performance, formulates the research hypotheses that are tested in the study, and presents empirical findings from the event studies and econometric analysis. It ...

The past two decades have witnessed a remarkable fiscal consolidation among OECD countries. A defining characteristic of this recent fiscal adjustment is that it has been based primarily on expenditure restraint and fundamental changes in public expenditure management, with increasing adoption of fiscal rules, coinciding with major tax and tax administration reforms. Fiscal discipline has been directly pursued in number of ways, ranging from hard rules to consolidation plans both at individual country and regional level. Public expenditure reforms have been instrumental in underpinning new fiscal frameworks focused on debt ceilings and deficit targets, on expenditure rules, and on the overall transparency of fiscal management. After presenting some stylized facts on fiscal developments in OECD countries, the scope of this paper is to discuss the role public expenditure management reforms and their impact on fiscal consolidation and on the increasing adoption of fiscal rules. Author’...

There is a very strong case for a medium-term approach to budgeting. An annual perspective is too short when many government programs have costs and benefits that extend unevenly over many years. Moreover, competing for incremental resources made available through annual budgets encourages politicians and bureaucrats to pursue their narrow, short-term self-interest, which results in budget allocations that do not serve the economy and society well. By providing the financing assurances needed for a more strategic, forward-looking approach to setting spending priorities, medium-term expenditure frameworks (MTEFs) can help to promote better quality budgeting. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of MTEFs. The next section describes what MTEFs are and how they have developed, followed by a discussion of the impact of MTEFs on fiscal performance.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires the Crown to articulate targets for a series of fiscal variables, including net worth. Given the dramatic improvement in the fiscal position in recent years, a critical policy question relates to how (and which) measures of Crown net worth should be targeted. This paper sets out a framework for targeting Crown net worth. It does so by supplementing the GAAP-based measure with forward-looking information about spending and tax revenue. The paper argues that targeting net worth for the Crown requires the estimation of a path, rather than a static level.

This paper attempts to ascertain what light the empirical literature sheds on the efficacy of performance budgeting. Performance budgeting refers to procedures or mechanisms intended to strengthen links between the funds provided to public sector entities and their outcomes and/or outputs through the use of formal performance information in resource allocation decision making. The paper seeks to identify and examine