During the last two decades, France introduced a series of far-reaching reforms intended to bring about greater transparency towards Parliament, autonomy and flexibility to public managers, and rigor in to fiscal policy making.

The Republic of Kazakhstan is the largest economy in central Asia, and one of the fastest growing in the region. Having benefited from oil wealth as well as a diversifying and liberalised economy, Kazakhstan envisages a progressive modernisation of the political, administrative and juridical...

Uruguay is the only country in the world which has a five-year budget. A budget is prepared by each new government taking office and voted within 6 months of its swearing in, for the whole five-year government term. Each year, an annual revision (“budget update”) takes place, where the...

Thailand set out a commitment to introduce gender budgeting in its 2017 Constitution. This Gender Budgeting Action Plan, prepared at the request of the Thai government, assesses the extent to which the necessary foundations are in place to develop and implement an effective approach to gender...

This article takes stock of actions that the government of Ireland has taken to mainstream equality considerations into the budget process. It provides options and recommendations on future directions for equality budgeting in Ireland, in light of national developments and international...

This article describes the changes that have taken place in the work of the Budget Office of the central government as a consequence of the transition from the traditional budget process, often referred to as “incremental budgeting”, to top-down budgeting. This transition has taken place in...

Public spending is very high in Norway, partly reflecting an extensive coverage of the welfare system and ambitious regional development objectives. Moreover, several institutional features contribute to dampening the cost-effectiveness of many public-spending programmes. Abundant oil revenues...

This paper analyses the main features of Iceland’s public expenditure and addresses some key policy issues. While overall public spending is not high compared with Iceland’s Nordic neighbours, other OECD countries have made more progress in reining it in. Budget consolidation efforts and...

Public sector reforms and a refocusing of spending, partly through privatisation, have created a leaner and more effective government in Mexico. Primary expenditure, at around 18 per cent of GDP in 1999, is less than half the average for the OECD. At the same time, there are important spending...