Balanced Budget Research Articles

Providing solutions to reduce the operating balance deficit of the government’s budget

Negative operating balance is a problem faced by the governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran in recent years, with the increase of international sanctions in the field of oil and gas sales, the reduction of Iran's oil revenues and the ever-increasing inflation; the negative operating balance of the government's budget has shown itself more than before. The main goal of this research is to identifying and providing solutions to compensate for the negative operating balance of the government’s budget. In this exploratory-applied research that was conducted in 1401, by conducting in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 19 experts (managers and experts of the plan and budget organization and faculty members of University of Tehran) who were selected by the snowball sampling and analysis of the interviews with thematic analysis, solutions to reduce the operating balance deficit of government’s budget were provided. these solutions are in the form of legal solutions, which include make efficient laws regarding the control of the sale of natural resources such as oil and gas condensate and make anti-monopoly laws and the process solutions which include shrinking the government, increasing the efficiency of the government, correct and principled taxation, performance-based budgeting, efficient monitoring and supervision of the government's economic activities and export and industries development, (2 main themes, 8 sub-themes and 62 codes) were identified and were analyzed.

Do Subnational Fiscal Rules Reduce Public Investment? The Case of Fiscal Responsibility Laws in India

This article examines whether the adoption of deficit targets by subnational governments in India influenced the composition of public spending. Using dynamic panel estimations, this study finds that the adoption of fiscal responsibility laws (FRLs) by Indian states is correlated with improvements in their budget balances, but the same period also witnessed significant cuts in development spending. Furthermore, the states have reduced their capital expenditure and social sector spending after adopting FRLs, while the increases in tax and nontax revenues are insignificant. The subnational governments in developing countries that are adopting numerical deficit and debt targets should explore mechanisms to minimize the distortionary impacts of fiscal targets on the composition of subnational spending since reduced expenditure on development and capital projects may be counterproductive for fiscal sustainability in the long run as these expenditures tend to have significant positive externalities.

PENGUKURAN KINERJA PEMERINTAH DAERAH DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN PRINSIP VALUE FOR MONEY PADA DINAS PUPR KABUPATEN ACEH BARAT

The problems examined in this study are the Budget Realization Report, reports on changes in Over budget Balance, Balance Sheet, Operational Reports, Changes in Equity Reports, Notes to Financial Statements. In the accountability of this report it was concluded that the PUPR Office of West Aceh District. In its development, the public sector budget system has become a multifunctional policy instrument that is used as a tool to achieve organizational goals. APBD is a regional government financial work plan that will be used as a basis for carrying out development in the region. In preparing, discussing, determining and supervising the implementation of the budget, it is not enough just to look at the size of the budget, but the output must also be produced economically, efficiently and effectively for the development of the region. In this study, the authors wish to analyze the performance of the West Aceh district government by using the principle of value for money which is based on three economic ratios, the ratio of efficiency and ratio of effectiveness. The results of the study show that the performance of the West Aceh District government for the 2020-2021 period as a whole is not good.

Public Finance, Fiscal Rules and Public–Private Partnerships: Lessons for Post-COVID-19 Investment Plans

We explore the distribution of public–private partnerships (PPPs) among the European Union countries, with a special focus on fiscal rules and budgetary constraints while controlling for empirically identified drivers. While offering the opportunity to increase innovation and efficiency in the public sector infrastructure, PPPs allow governments to relax their budget and borrowing constraints. We find that the state of public finances influences the government’s choice of PPPs and makes them more appealing for reasons other than efficiency. Stringent numerical rules on the budget balance also foster government’s opportunism in the choice of PPPs. On the other hand, high levels of public debt increase the country risk, and discourage private investors from PPP contracts. The results highlight the importance of restoring PPP investment choices based on efficiency criteria and adapt fiscal rules to shield public investment while stabilizing private expectations by means of credible trajectories of debt reduction. The findings contribute to the debate on the role of fiscal rules in fiscal policy and of PPPs in infrastructure financing.

The Hi-GLASS all-wave daily net radiation product: Algorithm and product validation

The surface net radiation (Rn) represents the balance of the radiative budget on the land surface and drives many physical and biological processes. An accurate and long-term product for global daily coverage of Rn at a high spatial resolution is needed for a variety of applications at regional and local scales. This study proposes two algorithms, called the downward shortwave radiation (DSR)-based algorithm and the top-of-atmosphere (TOA)-based algorithm, to estimate Rn by using Landsat data. The DSR-based algorithm consists of three conditional models, and was developed based on the analysis of the relationship between Rn and shortwave radiation as well as ancillary information from ground measurements and various datasets. The TOA-based algorithm was developed by linking Rn to TOA observations from Landsat sensors and ancillary information. The two algorithms were developed by using the random forest method. The results of their validation against ground measurements showed that the DSR-based algorithm outperformed the TOA-based algorithm in terms of accuracy, with a determination coefficient (R2) of 0.93, root-mean-squared error (RMSE) of 17.58 Wm−2, and bias of −4.27 Wm−2. It was stable under various conditions. We then applied the DSR-based algorithm to generate a product of the global daily Rn, called the High-resolution (Hi)- Global LAnd Surface Satellite (GLASS), from 2013 to 2018 at a spatial resolution of 30 m under a clear sky based on remotely sensed products, including the DSR from GLASS, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) obtained from Landsat, surface broadband albedo from Hi-GLASS, and meteorological factors based on reanalysis data from MERRA2. Following its validation using in-situ observations from 2013 to 2018, the overall accuracy of the daily Rn acquired by Hi-GLASS under clear sky was found to be satisfactory, with a value of R2 of 0.90 and an RMSE of 25.03 Wm−2. Moreover, compared with the daily Rn obtained from the GLASS product at a spatial resolution of 5 km, that obtained by Hi-GLASS can better characterize the surface by providing more details and capturing the variations in the measurements, especially large and small values. However, due to limitations of the available datasets and the algorithm, the data on Rn for most regions lacked information on cloudy skies and areas at high latitudes. This information thus cannot be provided by Hi-GLASS yet. Moreover, the influence of the topography on values of Rn has not been thoroughly considered. Nonetheless, values of Rn under clear sky obtained from Hi-GLASS offer promise for use in a wide range of areas, and efforts are underway to improve this product.

Evaporation dominates the loss of plateau lake in Southwest China using water isotope balance assessment

The water balance budget in remote plateau lakes provides a fundamental information on the local climate-hydrological pattern. However, integrated investigation on the waters entering the lake, especially groundwater, was limited. To assess the current climate stress on Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau lakes, we collected rivers, groundwater, lake, and precipitation with varying isotopic compositions in the Chenghai Lake basin over four separate campaigns during a hydrological year. The wide and enriched variation of isotope composition in rivers, groundwater, and lake indicate that they have undergone distinct evaporations, which further reveal the recharging and mixing processes. Based on the similar isotopic signals between rivers and precipitation, rivers can serve as proxies for precipitation. Groundwater was primarily replenished by high mountain precipitation duo to the stable isotopic values in aquifers. Even through mass water in lake was able to smooth out some variability, the considerable isotopic variation of lake during the four collections suggested the influence of meteorological conditions. According to the assessment of isotope balance model, lake evaporation accounts for almost 65 % of the total inflow for one year, which partially explains the climate stress on the lake level. As the most sensitive variables, changes in relative humidity (h) and isotope composition of atmospheric moisture (δA) resulted in remarkable variations in E/I ratios and the constructed water isotope framework. These results shed light on the capacity of evaporation relative to lake input and provide interpretations on local paleoclimate and predicted-climate construction.

An analysis of the government revenue–expenditure nexus: A wavelet approach for the Romanian case

The turbulent economic environment of the last decades, the social effects associated with the responsibilities of the state to support the development of the green economy, and the increase of involvement in sustainable social inclusion make it necessary to increase budget revenues. Evaluating the link between government revenues and expenditures is a complex approach defined by several factors related to tax compliance and the perception of the efficiency of the expenditure. In addition, recent endogenous and exogenous shocks have considerably influenced the fundamentals of long-term fiscal policy and budget balancing. The type of relationship between government revenue and expenditure is analyzed to identify the leading and lagging variables, and the wavelet approach and monthly data for Romania for 2000–2021 are used. In various periods, the revenue led the expenditure, or vice versa. The spend–tax and tax–spend hypotheses are confirmed for different periods. The analysis highlights the intervals of behavioral asymmetry, which helps to monitor the implementation of fiscal policy. Also, the results could represent a starting point for outlining measures in the fiscal policy area.

TAFS: A Truthful Auction for IoT Application Offloading in Fog Computing Networks

Emerging as an alternative to cloud computing, fog computing is expected to provide low-latency, high-throughput, reliable services for ever-growing Internet of Things (IoT) applications, especially real-time applications with strict responsiveness requirements. By offloading time-critical and computation-intensive applications to proximal fog nodes (FNs), both application response time and network congestion can be markedly reduced. However, the FNs commonly suffer from limited resources compared to cloud computing nodes and, hence, may not serve all application users with guaranteed performance. The dynamic and heterogeneous nature of FNs also brings difficulty and overhead to fog computing resource management. These issues are addressed in the present study with the design of a double auction mechanism, namely, truthful auction for the fog system (TAFS), which provides incentives for FNs to satisfy as many application demands as possible with guaranteed performance. TAFS takes into account the latency tolerance of application users during the FN assignment and resource allocation to satisfy real-time requirements. We theoretically prove that TAFS satisfies several desired economic properties, including truthfulness, individual rationality, and budget balance. The performance of TAFS is evaluated through simulation experiments.

A Comparative Experimental Study of Green Roofs Based on Radiation Budget and Surface Energy Balance

One of the major benefits of a green roof is its thermal performance compared to a conventional concrete roof building; it maintains indoor temperatures under varying outdoor temperatures. In this study, data were collected from four newly built detached buildings with a bare concrete roof, a highly reflective roof, and two green roofs, respectively. The results showed that the green roofs lowered the maximum indoor temperature by 6.83? on average compared to a bare concrete roof building, which potentially saves a substantial amount of energy required for cooling buildings. The surface energy balance analysis using the flux profile method showed that the difference in ground heat flux depending on roof type is crucial for determining the indoor temperature of a building. Moreover, the green roof consumed a considerable fraction of net radiation for the latent heat (70.7%), whereas the bare concrete roof used a larger fraction of net radiation for the sensible heat flux (45.3%) and ground heat flux (16.2%). the green roof consumed a considerable amount of net radiation for the latent heat flux, but little ground heat flux. By contrast, the bare concrete roof used a larger fraction of the net radiation for the ground heat flux and the sensible heat flux, which increased the temperature of both the indoor building and the air close to the surface. These results demonstrate that a green roof not only reduces indoor temperature fluctuation but also helps mitigate the heat island effect directly.

Discussion on the Necessity of Soil Organic Carbon Mineralization in Degraded Forest Land in Aeolian Sand Beach Area

Soil organic carbon is the largest carbon pool in terrestrial ecosystem, and its dynamic change is an important factor affecting the carbon budget balance of terrestrial ecosystem and the global carbon cycle. The forest land is extremely sensitive to the change of soil carbon pool. The wind-sand beach area in the north of Jingbian is located at the southern tip of the Mu Us Desert, and the ecological environment is fragile. The shelterbelt has been seriously degraded and fragmented, forming a large area of fragmentated forest, which has gradually changed from the original carbon sink into a carbon source. In addition, this region is dry, less rain and more wind-blown sand, which determines that temperature and moisture are the key factors affecting the mineralization and stability of soil organic carbon in this region. This paper analyzed and summarized the influencing factors of soil organic carbon mineralization, such as water, temperature and organic carbon components, and discussed the necessity of studying soil organic carbon mineralization in degraded forest land.

Incentive-compatible and budget balanced AGV mechanism for peer-to-peer energy trading in smart grids

Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading refers to a type of decentralized transaction, where the energy from distributed energy resources is directly traded between peers. A key challenge in peer-to-peer energy trading is designing a safe, efficient, and transparent trading model and operating mechanism. In this study, we consider a P2P trading environment based on blockchain technology, where prosumers can submit bids or offers without knowing the reports of others. We propose an Arrow-d’Aspremont-Gerard-Varet (AGV)-based mechanism to encourage prosumers to submit their real reserve price and determine the P2P transaction price. We demonstrate that the AGV mechanism can achieve Bayesian incentive compatibility and budget balance. Kernel density estimation (KDE) is used to derive the prior distribution from the historical bid/offer information of the agents. Case studies are carried out to analyze and evaluate the proposed mechanism. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism in guiding agents to report the true reserve price while maximizing social welfare. Moreover, we discuss the advantages of budget balance for decentralized trading by comparing the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) and AGV mechanisms.

A marine plastic cloud - Global mass balance assessment of oceanic plastic pollution

To improve our understanding and management of marine plastic pollution of the ocean, a total plastic budget is needed which quantifies the sources and sinks, as well as inputs and removal of plastic per unit time. The current state of knowledge indicates that the coastal zone and ocean water column are major locations for plastic pollution, but the fate of much of this must ultimately be the deep ocean floor. We reviewed 23 journal articles that provide 280 observations of deep-sea sediment microplastic concentration across six different off-shelf environments. We calculate the following mean concentrations of microplastic particles (number) per kg of sediment: continental slope 502; submarine canyons 784; submarine fans and continental rise 714; abyssal plains 217; trenches and troughs 2782; and abyssal hills, mountains and other ocean floor 165 particles kg−1. These figures are alarming because several exceed one estimate of ‘safe’ levels of microplastic concentration for benthic marine life (540 particles kg−1). Monitoring of the concentration of plastic particles in sediments of submarine canyons, fans and continental rise environments and in trenches and troughs should be a priority to ensure efficacy of policies and actions taken to curb ocean plastic pollution at both the national and global level. We estimate 3.05 million tonnes of microplastic resides in deep ocean sediments but acknowledge the uncertainties of this figure. If correct, this figure implies that the ocean water column (which may contain as much as 90 million tonnes of microplastic) is a major, transitory sink for MP, forming a suspended, marine plastic cloud. In addition to particle concentrations, further measurements of the size and mass of microplastic in deep-sea sediments and in the water column are needed to advance development of mass balance budgets for marine plastic pollution.

Promotion, Disintegration and Remediation of group cooperation under heterogeneous distribution system based on peer rating

Collective action, like public goods game, often requires mechanism intervention to avoid exploitation by free-riders. Reward and punishment are two widely studied solutions, but the balance of budgets and diverse behavioral motivations need further emphasis. Here, we introduce a heterogeneous distribution system based on peer rating (PRHDS), a disguised reward and punishment mechanism under budget balancing, and consider a comprehensive range of behavioral motivations. Preliminary studies show that PRHDS has the potential to promote cooperation, but is too sensitive to random exploration. This vulnerability is attributed to the exploitation of prosocial cooperators by egoistic cooperators. Afterward, we propose three punishments for minority raters and find that two monetary punishments can compensate for the above limitation. A notable finding is that the cooperation potential at medium multipliers seems to exceed that at high multipliers. In addition, our further analysis suggests that PRHDS may perform better when strategy differentiation is considered. This study reveals the possible limitations of PRHDS as a solution to collective social dilemma, and may have some enlightening significances for seeking the countermeasures.

Sustainable budgeting and financial balance: Which lever will you pull?

During the past few decades, countries have experienced a remarkable increase in local expenditure levels to address rising local needs. However, the limited availability of financial resources, exacerbated first by the 2008 financial crisis and then by Covid19 crisis, has called for budget restrictions usually imposed by higher levels of government. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of a balance budget rule enforcement, exploring its effect on the local government cost efficiency and, in particular, considering the complex trade-off between efficiency and equity. Specifically, our identification strategy considers the exogenous introduction of a new budget balance rule that requires local governments to respect both an annual and a longer-term equilibrium criterion. The difference-in-differences analysis builds on a rich panel dataset covering all the public functions. We find that, on average, the budget rule enforcement exerted a positive effect on local government efficiency.

Sub-sovereign Fiscal Rules in Poland in Comparison with Measures Adopted in the US, China, and Selected EU Countries

Measures to increase debt sustainability and related creditworthiness play an important role in sovereign fiscal policy. The establishing of fiscal rules delimits fiscal policy through specific limits for particular budget aggregates. Fiscal rules in Poland were analyzed against measures applied in European Union countries, with emphasis on changes due to COVID-19. Also differences in fiscal rules at the regional and local level in the United States, China, and Poland are described. Conclusions from the research lead to the identification of a relationship between the restrictiveness of the rules and possibilities to maintain budget balance and prevent excessive indebtedness. Important conclusions may be also drawn from different reactions for crisis in the fiscal rules area – from relaxing the rules to wide use of special fund or financial vehicles – which were crucial states reply to fiscal burdens.

Acts of the President of the Russian Federation in the Budgetary Sphere

The paper provides the results of the analysis of the acts of the President of the Russian Federation, namely: decrees, orders, annual messages, affecting the budgetary issues. Presidential decrees have been systematized depending on the regulation of relations developing regarding budget expenditures and budget revenues, budget balance, budget structure and budget system, inter-budgetary relations, budgeting process. Depending on the degree of certainty of the addressee (addressees) the author examines decrees-instructions to specific state authorities, as well as decrees addressed to an indefinite circle of persons. The paper classifies Presidential Orders depending on their functional purpose and subject of regulation. In budget law, the Orders of the President of the Russian Federation perform the function of a regulator of material and procedural relations. Firstly, they formalize Instructions of the President of the Russian Federation to the Government of the Russian Federation at the stage of drafting the budget, and, secondly, they establish the spending objectives of the Reserve Fund and other budget allocations intended for financial support of the powers of the Head of State. By means of Orders, the composition of participants of the budgeting process can be specified, and the Orders themselves formalize the participation of the President of the Russian Federation in budget planning, making him a «co-author» of the budget law. The opinion is substantiated concerning inclusion of the annual Message of the President of the Russian Federation, fixing the goals and forecasting the socio-economic development of the state, in the system of sources of budget law. The author opines that adoption of acts by the Head of State in the budgetary sphere makes it possible to promptly regulate relevant public relations and determines the vectors of its development, ensuring stability of the system of public power and State integrity.

A Truthful and Reliable Incentive Mechanism for Federated Learning Based on Reputation Mechanism and Reverse Auction

As a distributed machine learning paradigm, federated learning (FL) enables participating clients to share only model gradients instead of local data and achieves the secure sharing of private data. However, the lack of clients’ willingness to participate in FL and the malicious influence of unreliable clients both seriously degrade the performance of FL. The current research on the incentive mechanism of FL lacks the accurate assessment of clients’ truthfulness and reliability, and the incentive mechanism based on untruthful and unreliable clients is unreliable and inefficient. To solve this problem, we propose an incentive mechanism based on the reputation mechanism and reverse auction to achieve a more truthful, more reliable, and more efficient FL. First, we introduce the reputation mechanism to measure clients’ truthfulness and reliability through multiple reputation evaluations and design a reliable client selection scheme. Then the reverse auction is introduced to select the optimal clients that maximize the social surplus while satisfying individual rationality, incentive compatibility, and weak budget balance. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that this incentive mechanism can motivate more clients with high-quality data and high reputations to participate in FL with less cost, which increases the FL tasks’ economic benefit by 31% and improves the accuracy from 0.9356 to 0.9813, and then promote the efficient and stable development of the FL service trading market.

Mark O. Hatfield: Oregon Statesman. By Richard W. Etulain

Richard W. Etulain, a well-known historian of the American West, offers a short, readable, and sympathetic biography of Mark O. Hatfield, long-time U.S. Senator from Oregon. He is best remembered today as a Republican Senator who opposed the Vietnam War in the 1960s, supported the nuclear freeze movement in the 1980s, and voted against the Gulf War and the Balanced Budget Amendment in the 1990s. In his thirty plus career in the Senate, he seemed more in line with liberal Democratic Senators, George McGovern (S.D.), Frank Church (Id.), and Edward Kennedy (Mass.). At the same time, Hatfield was a deeply devout Evangelical Christian and good friends with Rev. Billy Graham, who pushed Nixon to put him on the presidential ticket in 1968. The strength of Etulain’s biography is that he captures the frenetic energy Hatfield brought to his rise in state and national politics. Etulian devotes four of the five chapters to Hatfield’s emergence as a political force in Oregon. Hatfield’s followed a natural political trajectory, beginning with his election to the state legislative assembly in 1950, then election to the Secretary of State, followed by two successful terms as governor from 1959–67, before winning election to the U.S. Senate, where he served the next thirty years.

To Tie Each Other’s Hands: Italy Negotiating the Introduction of Constitutional Balanced Budget Rules and Independent Fiscal Institutions (2010-2013)

This article presents an in-depth qualitative case study on the negotiations underlying the introduction of an Independent Fiscal Institution and a Constitutional Balanced Budget Rule in Italy. The article looks at the interests of the relevant actors in the negotiation process of the Six Pack, Euro Plus Pact, Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance, and Two Pack by conducting interviews with the negotiators and analyses of parliamentary records and press declarations. The article demonstrates that functional mechanisms explain the outcome of such negotiations better than the consolidated literature of Liberal Intergovernmentalism, which expects that the preferences of the constellation of national actors are the key drivers of EU grand bargains impacting on member states’ core state powers. As a matter of fact, Italian negotiators decided to accept the introduction of such instruments because they were potentially helpful in reducing macroeconomic risks both domestically and in other EU member states without having particular political costs, and not because domestic actors showcased clear preferences in favour of them. The results contribute to the academic debate on the integration of the Economic and Monetary Union by testing hypotheses deriving from traditional EU integration and International Relations literature and paves the way for future research allowing for a greater generalisation.

Main Approaches to the Implementation of Budget Policy Under the Conditions of Sanctions

The formation of the main financial document of the country for the next budget cycle was carried out in the face of growing sanctions pressure. Trade, technological, financial restrictions on the part of a number of states have necessitated the adoption of systemic measures aimed at structural restructuring and technological modernization of the economy. Accordingly, the Government of the Russian Federation faced a serious task of financing priority measures to reorient export deliveries, develop transport and logistics corridors, digitalize sectors of the economy, ensure production chains within the country, technological sovereignty, stimulate entrepreneurial, private investment, innovative activity, develop the financial system, increase flexibility labor market. At the same time, it is mandatory to maintain a balanced budget system. The article discusses the main approaches to the implementation of budget policy, the formation of the federal budget, the definition of mechanisms for financial support of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in order to ensure the sustainability of budgets at all levels.