Searching for Exits from the Great Recession: Coordination of Fiscal Consolidation and Growth Enhancing Innovation Policies in Central and Eastern Europe

To overcome the Great Recession that started in 2008, the European Union (EU) has opted for a strategy that combines austerity-driven fiscal and experimental ‘growth-enhancing’ research, development, and innovation (RDI) policies supported by different coordination mechanisms. We analyse the experiences of four Central and Eastern European economies—the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Slovenia—in implementing this strategy. Given the weak policy capacities both in the EU institutions and CEE economies to draft and coordinate such novel RDI policies, we find that the implementation of this strategy is more challenging under the current EU fiscal and economic policy coordination system than assumed by the EU

Literature review on cutback management

Introduction The literature review at hand is the first deliverable of Work Package no. 7 The global financial crisis in the public sector as an emerging coordination challenge of the EU Seventh Framework program project Coordinating for Cohesion in the Public Sector of the Future (COCOPS). The main purpose of the review is to give an overview of the cutback management literature and its findings of cutback strategies in the public sector in the 1970-80s. The aim is to look at the application and impact of various cutback management and decision-making practices and discuss whether lessons could be learnt for the current crisis. The recent global financial and economic crisis, followed by fiscal crisis, have lifted the topic of cutback management back on the research agenda, as many governments in Europe and elsewhere either plan or have already implemented austerity measures in order to cope with the concurrent problems of lower revenues and high public debt. It can be expected that the large-scale cutbacks, undertaken by numerous governments, would lead to changes in public administration practices. Thus, the impacts of the global crisis and the subsequent retrenchment on public administration and governance is and will continue to be a challenging issue for several years to come (Pollitt 2010; Thynne 2011; Coen and Roberts 2012). Looking at the patterns of cutback management during the previous era(s) of austerity can therefore provide useful insights for coping with the current crisis. ..

Fiscal Policy Learning from Crisis: Comparative Analysis of the Baltic Countries

The experience of a major crisis is often expected to lead to policy learning but the empirical evidence about this is limited. The goal of the paper is to explore comparatively whether the crisis of 2008–2010 has led to fiscal policy learning by civil servants in the three Baltic countries. Despite some differences in the crisis experience, the finance ministry officials in all three countries have identified the same lesson from the crisis: fiscal policy should be counter-cyclical and help to stabilize the economy. The paper also discusses how various factors have influenced policy learning, including the acknowledgment of failure, blame shifting, and analytical tractability

The European Union as a trigger of discursive change: The impact of the structural deficit rule in Estonia and Latvia

Our paper explores how a rule prescribed by the European Union can bring about changes in the policy discourse of a member state. Drawing on the literatures of discursive institutionalism and Europeanization, the theoretical part discusses the factors that influence discursive shifts. The empirical part examines the discursive impacts of the introduction of the structural budget deficit rule, required by the Fiscal Compact, in Estonia and Latvia. It demonstrates how the discursive shifts have been shaped by the localized translations offered by civil servants, the entrance of additional actors to the policy-making arena, crisis experience, and the strategic interests of policy actors

The future of public sector accounting research. A polyphonic debate

PurposeThe purpose of this polyphonic paper is to report on interdisciplinary discussions on the state-of-the-art and future of public sector accounting research (PSAR). The authors hope to enliven the debates of the past and future developments in terms of context, themes, theories, methods and impacts in the field of PSAR by the exchanges they include here. Design/methodology/approachThis polyphonic paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach. It brings into conversation ideas, views and approaches of several scholars on the actual and future developments of PSAR in various contexts, and explores potential implications. FindingsThis paper has brought together scholars from a plurality of disciplines, research methods and geographical areas, showing at the same time several points of convergence on important future themes (such as accounting as a mean for public, accounting, hybridity and value pluralism) and enabling conditions (accounting capabilities, profession and digitalisation) for PSA scholarship and practice, and the richness of looking at them from a plurality of perspectives. Research limitations/implicationsExploring these past and future developments opens up the potential for interesting theoretical insights. A much greater theoretical and practical reconsideration of PSAR will be fostered by the exchanges included here. Originality/valueIn setting out a future research agenda, this paper fosters theoretical and methodological pluralism in the interdisciplinary research community interested in PSAR in various contexts. The discussion perspectives presented in this paper constitute not only a basis for further research in this relevant accounting area on the role, status and developments of PSAR but also creative potential for practitioners to be more reflective on their practices and also intended and united outcomes of such practices

Supreme Audit Institutions and public value:demonstrating relevance

Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) have an important role in ensuring public sector accountability; their main activities being managing the audit of public sector entities’ financial statements and assessing probity/compliance, providing advice to parliamentary committees, and undertaking performance audits. Standards issued by the International Organization of SAIs encourage SAIs to recognize the value they deliver through their activities and to demonstrate that to citizens, Parliament, and other stakeholders. The recognition of the need to be democratically accountable for efficiency and effectiveness is one aspect of public value, which is also concerned with the just use of authority (Moore, 2013). The purpose of this article is to develop the components of a SAI's public value and, through a comparative international study, to analyze how SAIs’ report on the public value they deliver. Analyzing reporting against the model developed in this article indicates that SAIs reporting prioritizes critiques to increase public sector efficiency and effectiveness, rather than government policy. In addition, it finds SAIs generally fail to discuss any negative consequences of their work. SAIs are encouraged to develop new ways to demonstrate their ongoing relevance

The Baltic Republics and the Crisis of 2008-2011

__Abstract__ This essay explores how the Baltic republics responded to the crisis of 2008-2011. We argue that while there are significant differences in how the Baltic economies responded to the crisis, these responses not only remain within the neo-liberal policy paradigm characteristic of the region from the early 1990s, but that the crisis radicalised Baltic economies and particularly their fiscal stance. We show that there are a number of unique features in all three Baltic republics' political economies that made such a radicalisation possible. However, these unique features make it almost impossible for the Baltic experience to be replicable anywhere else in Europe