Budgetary Variables Research Articles

Budgetary Procedures and Deficits in Norwegian Local Governments

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the connection between budgetary procedures and deficits in Norwegian local governments. We argue that centralized budget- ary procedures have an advantage in overcoming common-pool resource problems in the decision-making process and will lead to lower deficits. This hypothesis is tested on a panel data set of Norwegian local governments. The results add to the existing evidence of a negative connection between deficits and the degree of centralization of the budget process. Special emphasis is put on the problem with potential biased estimates resulting from endogeneity of the budgetary variables.

L'adaptation à la turbulence : les Etats-Unis face aux transformations de I'OTAN, 1989-1991

The end of the Cold War has freed Eastern Europe from the Soviet Union and Western Europe from the United States. This article explores how the Americans have attempted to adapt to these new uncertainties by redefining the threat and by seeking a new political and military identity for NATO. The individual, societal, and external variables that may explain how strategies of adaptation are chosen are then identified. The turbulence of the System, by concentrating decision-making, by giving more weight to budgetary variables, by encouraging neo-isolationist trends, and by favouring local political priorities accentuates an approach of reacting to events and preserving the status quo, an approach which leaves NATO at the mercy of German objectives in Europe without resolving the issue of European security.

Political Budget Cycles: The Case of the Western German Länder

This paper focuses on the issue of the electoral andideological cycles in state government budget for the elevenWestern German Lander. We verify this hypothesis over theperiod 1974–1994 for the following budgetary variables: totalexpenditures, surplus/deficit, administration, health care,education, roads and social security benefits. While overallour results seem to show that generally the party variabledoes not play a systematic role in spending decisions, theyprovide some support to the opportunistic cycle theory showingthat the only relevant phenomenon is the effect of theupcoming election on the government spending inclinations.

Is Cleveland Another New York?

In this article, the circumstances of the Cleveland default and the New York City fiscal crisis are compared. Regression equations for budgetary variables are estimated on a sample of 44 large cities and used to predict the levels of the budgetary variables for Cleveland and New York. Although there is some evidence that New York's expenditures and revenues are both greater than would be predicted for a city with its characteristics, Cleveland's expenditures and revenues were not significantly different from what would be predicted for a city with its characteristics.

Functional policy actions: Agency activities subsequent to budgeting

This study considers numerous non-budgetary measures of policy activity (called functional actions) that are conducted by agencies as they seek to implement their programs. Relationships found in earlier research among maturity, coalitions, and budgetary variables with the functional actions of agencies are extended here through a subsample test of the data and through the utilization of functional actions as independent as well as dependent variables. These functional actions are considered important because they directly affect the lives of citizens, seem manipulable by agencies, and represent a crucial first step in evaluating both the governmental and societal impact of agency programs. Data for eight federal agencies from fiscal years 1960 through 1971 were usedincorporating percentages and simple bivariate correlation coefficients. While the findings remain tentative,numerous implications are suggested for agency behavior and for the empirical study of public policy.