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Comparing Cost Accounting Use across European Countries: The Role of Administrative Traditions, NPM Instruments, and Fiscal Stress
Author(s) -
Mohr Zachary T.,
Raudla Ringa,
Douglas James W.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/puar.13162
Subject(s) - accounting , cost accounting , management accounting , government (linguistics) , national accounts , project accounting , accounting information system , public economics , new public management , business , economics , positive accounting , public sector , financial accounting , economy , linguistics , philosophy
Cost accounting in public organizations is not often studied from a comparative perspective , particularly at the national level of government . While it is often claimed that factors such as New Public Management (NPM) and fiscal stress are the primary drivers of government cost accounting , an important but understudied factor is the administrative tradition of the government , which may influence the use of cost accounting and tools like it . This article examines the perceptions of top public executives regarding cost accounting use across 19 European countries . It focuses on three key factors identified in the literature as potentially being associated with cost accounting use—administrative traditions , NPM instruments , and fiscal stress . Findings show that administrative tradition and the use of NPM instruments are related to cost accounting use , but fiscal stress is not related to cost accounting use in the countries in our study .