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...

The challenge for fiscal policy in Slovakia is to achieve fiscal consolidation in a way which supports the fragile recovery and protects spending on areas which are important for re-embarking on a trajectory of high trend growth and underpinning a catch-up in living standards. While the recently...

Over the past decade Austria has undertaken a carefully-considered and ambitious series of modern budgeting reforms. Evaluation of the budget reforms was purposely built into the reform process. The budget law provides for an external evaluation no later than 2017. To meet these obligations,...

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...

In the course of the prolonged economic crisis that started in 2008, fiscal space has become a scarce commodity in OECD countries. This has not only broadened the appeal of a concept originally raised by emerging countries in the early 2000s, but has also extended its meaning to recognise its...

The Republic of Albania is located in south-eastern Europe and has a population of 2.8 million (2011 census). It was established as a unitary parliamentary republic in 1991 after 46 years of Communist rule. This review of the budget process of the Republic of Albania was carried out as part of...

The challenge for fiscal policy in Slovakia is to achieve fiscal consolidation in a way which supports the fragile recovery and protects spending on areas which are important for re-embarking on a trajectory of high trend growth and underpinning a catch-up in living standards. While the recently...

Japan experienced a major change of government in September 2009. It was a remarkable political event, because Japanese politics was dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in almost all the years following the end of World War ll. The new coalition government led by the Democratic Party...