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The Stability and Growth Pact has been a success in numerous EU countries, especially in guiding them toward underlying fiscal balance ahead of population aging. These countries tend to be smaller, subject to greater macroeconomic volatility, and reliant on a form of fiscal governance that emphasizes targets and contracts. Most of the new members share these characteristics. For the countries less compatible with the Pact, domestic governance reforms that increase the reputational costs for noncompliance can be useful complements to the fiscal framework.

PurposeThis paper aims to unravel the puzzle that the United Kingdom’s high-quality government accounting and fiscal architecture is associated with low-quality outcomes, including poor productivity growth, high public debt, public services which do not meet citizen expectations and historically high levels of taxation. It contributes to public sector accounting research in the fields of fiscal transparency and governance.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses Miller and Power’s (2013) economization framework and Dunsire’s (1990) concept of collibration to explain why being a global leader in public sector accounting reform and in fiscal and monetary architecture has not protected the UK from weak governance. The intersection of economization’s roles of accounting with modes of government accounting clarifies the puzzle.FindingsWhereas accruals government accounting contributes to fiscal transparency, this is not a sufficient condition for well-judged policy and its effective application. Collibration is the dominant mechanism for mediation in the fiscally centralized UK, but it has failed to deliver stable outcomes, in part because Parliament is limited in its ability to hold back inappropriate behaviour by the Executive. Subjectivization has disrupted adjudication because governments at all levels resist constraints on their behaviour, with unpredictable and often damaging consequences.Originality/valueThis paper provides insights through the combined lens of economization and modes of government accounting, demonstrating the practical value of this conceptualization. Although some causes for unsatisfactory outcomes are specific to the UK, there are cautions for accounting and fiscal reformers in other countries, such as Member States of the European Union.

PurposeThis study attempts to quantify the degree of independence of Central Bank of India from both legal and behavioural contexts over the period 1990–1991 to 2018–2019, a period encompassing major developments in the operation and regulation of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).Design/methodology/approachWe followed Jasmine et al. (2019) to calculate the magnitude of de jure independence of RBI and for de facto independence, “turnover rate (TOR) of CB governor” as proposed by Cukierman et al. (1992) is applied.FindingsThe results report that the legal autonomy of RBI increased specifically after the reforms and post formulation of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). However, the actual independence of RBI remains more or less in line within the critical threshold limit of 0.2.Practical implicationsThe study proposes effective implementation of laws and procedures designed to promote the independence of Central Bank of India imperative for an effective monetary operation along with a coordinated fiscal policy.Originality/valueTargeted study of a particular central bank on its “independence” aspect in general and of the Reserve Bank of India in particular has not been attempted as on date. It is to this end that the present study contributes.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-02-2023-0098.

The concept of market-based fiscal discipline posits that a government which runs persistent, excessive fiscal deficits will face an increased cost of borrowing and eventually, a reduced availability of credit, and that these market actions will provide an incentive to correct irresponsible fiscal behavior. This paper presents new empirical evidence on market-based fiscal discipline by estimating the relationship between the cost of borrowing and fiscal policy behavior across U.S. states. We find that U.S. states which have followed more prudent fiscal policies are perceived by the market as having lower default risk and are therefore able to reap the benefit of lower borrowing costs.

This study examines the impact of key governance dimensions on public budget rationalization in Palestine from 2002 to 2023. Utilizing Legitimacy Theory, the research assesses how institutional quality affects fiscal outcomes, including revenues, expenditures, net lending, and budget balance. Time-series data from the Palestinian Ministry of Finance and the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators were analyzed using multiple regression techniques. The results indicate that Rule of Law exhibits statistically significant effects across multiple fiscal dimensions, while Government Effectiveness shows a significant positive impact on public revenues and a marginal effect on budget balance. In contrast, Political Stability, Control of Corruption, Voice and Accountability, and Regulatory Quality do not demonstrate statistically significant effects within the multivariate framework. These findings underscore the importance of strengthening administrative capacity and legal enforcement mechanisms to improve fiscal discipline, particularly in politically fragile environments. Policy implications emphasize enhancing institutional effectiveness and reinforcing legal predictability while supporting broader structural reforms for sustainable public finance management in Palestine.

PurposeThe World Bank-sponsored public financial management reforms attempt to instil fiscal discipline through techno-managerial packages. Taking Ghana's integrated financial management information system (IFMIS) as a case, this paper explores how and why local actors engaged in counter-conduct against these reforms.Design/methodology/approachInterviews, observations and documentary analyses on the operationalisation of IFMIS constitute this paper's empirical basis. Theoretically, the paper draws on Foucauldian notions of governmentality and counter-conduct.FindingsEmpirics demonstrate how and why politicians and bureaucrats enacted ways of escaping, evading and subverting IFMIS's disciplinary regime. Politicians found the new accounting regime too constraining to their electoral and patronage politics and, therefore, enacted counter-conduct around the notion of political exigencies, creating expansionary fiscal conditions which the World Bank tried to mitigate through IFMIS. Perceiving the new regime as subverting their bureaucratic identity and influence, bureaucrats counter-conducted reforms through questioning, critiquing and rhetorical venting. Notably, the patronage politics of appropriating wealth and power underpins both these political and bureaucratic counter-conducts.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the critical accounting understanding of global public financial management reform failures by offering new empirical and theoretical insights as to how and why politicians and bureaucrats who are supposed to own and implement them nullify the global governmentality intentions of fiscal disciplining through subdued forms of resistance.

This paper examined the nexus between fiscal discipline and the budget process in Nigeria over the period from 1990 to 2020. Findings showed that the level of fiscal discipline in Nigeria as measured by two proxies of fiscal deficit gap and public debt gap is more enhanced under zero-based budgeting than under current incremental budgeting system. The study also established that civilian administrations are more prone to fiscal indiscipline relative to military dispensations. The paper also revealed the significant role of net foreign aid receipts in significantly narrowing fiscal deficit and public debt gaps in the short-run and long-run, respectively, as well as noted the significant widening impact of an increasing government size on the public debt gap in the long run. The study recommends, among others, the urgent need for the Nigerian government to restore fiscal discipline in public affairs through a reversion to zero-based budgeting system.

Investors reward reform progress. The progressive tightening of Qatar’s external sovereign credit spreads was underpinned by holistic reforms, fiscal spending discipline, and monetary policy credibility. In particular, investors may view fiscal spending discipline as an integral part of Qatar’s holistic reform and economic diversification. Greater broad-based reform progress also boosts the resilience of sovereign credit spreads to external shocks. The findings support fiscal and monetary policy reforms as part of the broader reform agenda in a holistic manner, as planned under the Third National Development Strategy.