Can an accrual budgeting system – a system in which budgetary spending authorisations to line ministries are formulated in accrual terms – serve the needs of good fiscal policy? If so, how must such a system be designed? This article addresses these questions and also considers the case for...

This article focuses on the optimal design of spending review processes. It contents that sending review should be an integral part of the government budget preparation process, in order to support aggregate fiscal discipline and to increase the fiscal space available for essential new spending...

This article shows how to combine top-down budgeting – in the core sense of the establishment of a hard aggregate expenditure ceiling at the start of the budget preparation process – with flexibility in the allocation of the aggregate ceiling between spending ministries during budget...

The Chilean government is exploring several important areas of public sector reform. This article discusses performance budgeting (including spending reviews, efficiency reviews, and the Chilean performance management system), mediumterm budgeting (especially the use of forward estimates and...