Premium
Accrual Budgeting: Accounting Treatment of Key Public Sector Items and Implications for Fiscal Policy
Author(s) -
MARTÍ CARIDAD
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
public budgeting and finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.694
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1540-5850
pISSN - 0275-1100
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5850.2006.00846.x
Subject(s) - accrual , accounting , fund accounting , accounting standard , financial accounting , governmental accounting , public sector , business , accounting information system , government (linguistics) , national accounts , positive accounting , economics , earnings , economy , linguistics , philosophy
Budgeting in accrual terms is one of the most controversial issues in public sector accounting. In this paper, we analyze the accounting treatment of problematic elements of the financial statements when introducing accrual budgeting, and discuss the effects of the analyzed accounting alternatives on fiscal policy. We focus on three pioneer countries in the implementation of accrual budgeting and accounting: the United Kingdom, Sweden, and New Zealand. The accounting standards of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board, the European System of Accounts, and the Government Finance Statistics Manual of the International Monetary Fund are taken as benchmarks.