Random Course

Public Economics- from MIT OpenCourseWare

Feasibility study of PFM regional training center

For the MENA region

Efficiency of Public Investments

From a workshop at KDI- Efficiency Enhancement in Public Investment Management
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Public Investment in Chile - Building the Future

Measuring the Efficiency of Public Expenditure - Evaluation on the Government Program in Korea

Thailand Monitoring and Evaluation System

Planning, Programming and Public Investment Experience in Turkey

In all presentations were made concerning 10 countries: Australia, Belarus*, Chile*, China*, Ireland*, Japan, Korea*, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam . These presentations and the accompanying papers provided insights into aspects of public investment management in these countries. Some participants drew particular attention to one case which was able to consolidate a great deal of data concerning the operation of public investment management, including the operation of PPPs, which have become increasingly important.

Other highlighted themes

A number of common themes emerged during the discussions:

* The role of central guidelines: Guidelines, which are then rigorously applied, were seen as a particularly critical aspect of a well functioning PIM system. Examples of such guidelines include: Guidelines for Total Project Cost Management System, Korea, 2007, and Guidelines for the Appraisal and Management of Capital and Expenditure Proposals in the Public Sector, Ireland, 2005. It was noted that the actual use of Guidelines was not always assured, thereby highlighting the need to see how systems actually work, rather than how they are designed to work. This was particularly the case for some developing countries, where there remains a need to develop guidelines.
* Evidence based research: Availability of good data was seen as a critical component in the evaluation of the efficiency of specific public investment projects, as well as for reviewing the performance of PIM systems as a whole. Some countries, most notably Chile and Korea, were able to assemble and publish a great deal of investment related data, which assisted the conference in understanding the mechanics of their PIM systems. Yet participants remained somewhat cautious of the ability to estimate efficiency of public projects, given data issues. Notwithstanding, there was general support to attempting to measure efficiency both ex ante and ex post.
* Increasing interest in and role of PPPs: There was general acceptance that PPPs can, for a number of reasons, accelerate the delivery of highly valued social services and infrastructure. Participants also agreed that the availability of PPP-related financing and use may need to be considered in the context of the availability of relevant expertise to assess PPP arrangements, the potential for optimal risk transfer, and value for money considerations. The Australian case usefully highlighted a number of the technical issues associated with managing a PPP portfolio.

Teaching Performance Measurement

If there is one sure sign that performance measurement has at least begun taking root as an official field of academic study, it's the following equation: P = S + T + E + C + M. That confection is the brainchild of Ed Jennings, a professor of public affairs and administration at the University of Kentucky's Martin School of Public Policy and Administration. Translated almost into English, the equation means that performance (P) is a product of government structure (S), program treatments (T), environmental factors (E), client characteristics (C) and managerial actions (M).

Jennings has been in the academic vanguard of teaching results-focused government, and has been thinking long and hard about how to analyze and explain it. "The work I've done is to examine whether it actually makes any difference," Jennings says. The performance equation is something that Jennings teaches his public-administration students. It may seem a bit esoteric to shoehorn the frequently messy work of administration into an equation. But Jennings' students head into the workplace with at least some background in what to expect when their bosses tell them to "manage for results."

-Novices with Numbers

A useful course for budget professionals

A workshop on productivity and efficiency measurement will be taught at IGIDR, Bombay, from 2 to 4 January, 2009

Data Envelopment Analysis: The Methodological Foundations

Session 1: Measuring Technical Efficiency – Output and Input-oriented Approaches

Session 2: Constant and Variable Returns to Scale: Measuring Scale Efficiency

Session 3: Efficiency Measurement using Market Prices: Cost and Profit Efficiencies

Session 4: Measuring Productivity Change over Time: The Malmquist Productivity Index

Assorted Conferences

Taxation, state building and capacity development in Africa” -28-29 August in Pretoria

At the end of two days those present, reached some laudable resolutions including:

* that the domestic tax base is a key mechanism for developing countries to escape aid or single resource dependency.
* that effective tax systems can reinforce government legitimacy through promoting accountability of governments to tax-paying citizens, effective state administration & good public financial management.

Latvian 4th International Public Management Summer Institute

Religion of measurement – how and why do you measure progress? Bill Dorotinsky, World Bank
Linking performance management to policy planning – setting objectives. Ronnie Downes, Department of Finance, Ireland

Calling Lecturers of Government Budgeting Courses

I would like to receive the syllabuses of your courses- would post them on this blog, if you would email me. Highly appreciated.

Is Gruber's book the best introductory textbook

Public Finance and Public Policy, the new textbook by Jonathan Gruber, is not only the best public finance textbooks I've ever read it is one of the best textbooks I've read in any field...

Gruber covers all the major programs - education, social security, unemployment insurance, Medicaid and Medicare, the tax system etc. - and in each case he carefully explains the institutional details and then he evaulates the empirical evidence focusing on the most telling pieces of evidence (rather than trying to cover everything that has ever been written as in a review paper).

Gruber is so good on the empirical research that this book would be a useful supplement to an applied econometrics class. Just flipping through it and reading the boxed Empirical Evidence sections gives a good feel for what the cutting edge questions and techniques are in empirical research.

-Alex Tabarrok

Assorted

Seminar on financial management information systems

IMF to prepare Guidelines for Fiscal Risk Disclosure and Management

Fiscal Policy Taining for USAID staff and host-country partners