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What conditions determine the success of Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MDTFs)? How should the implementation of MTEFs be sequenced and coordinated with other budget reforms? What role should organizations such as the World Bank, bilateral development partners, and other international agencies play in supporting MTEF adoption? How can country authorities implement a new MTEF or strengthen an existing one?Beyond the Annual Budget provides a comprehensive review of global experience with Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs). Looking at countries both with and without MTEFs over the period 1990 to 2008, the authors adopt a systematic methodological approach and rely on multiple analytical techniques—including event studies and econometric analysis—to obtain results about the impact of MTEFs on fiscal performance. The authors then draw on case studies and other material to determine whether MTEFs should be a common element of public financial management systems given differences in country circumstances. Guidance is also provided on the design and implementation of MTEFs in the context of broader public financial management systems reform.This volume will be of interest to multilateral and bilateral providers of technical assistance in the public financial management area, and to country authorities seeking to introduce or strengthen MTEFs.

Governments are increasingly turning to public sector innovation (PSI) labs to take new approaches to policy and service design. This turn towards PSI labs, which has accelerated in more recent years, has been linked to a number of trends. These include growing interest in evidence-based policymaking and the application of ‘design thinking’ to policymaking, although these trends sit uncomfortably together. According to their proponents, PSI labs are helping to create a new era of experimental government and rapid experimentation in policy design. But what do these PSI labs do? How do they differ from other public sector change agents and policy actors? What approaches do they bring to addressing contemporary policymaking? And how do they relate to other developments in policy design such as the growing interest in evidence-based policy and design experiments? The rise of PSI labs has thus far received little attention from policy scientists. Focusing on the problems associated with conceptualising PSI labs and clearly situating them in the policy process, this paper provides an analysis of some of the most prominent PSI labs. It examines whether labs can be classified into distinct types, their relationship to government and other policy actors and the principal methodological practices and commitments underpinning their approach to policymaking. Throughout, the paper considers how the rise of PSI labs may challenge positivist framings of policymaking as an empirically driven decision process.

There is a vast body of literature on performance-related pay (PRP), with strongly held views from opponents and proponents. This study reviews this literature, disaggregating the available evidence by the different public sector contexts, particularly the different types of public sector jobs, the quality of the empirical study, and the economic context (developing country or OECD settings), with the aim of distilling useful lessons for policy-makers in developing countries. The overall findings of the review are generally positive across these contextual categories. In particular, the findings from high quality studies, based on a simple scoring method for internal and external validity, of PRP in public sector-equivalent jobs show that explicit performance standards linked to some form of bonus pay can improve the desired service outcomes, at times dramatically. This evidence primarily concerns “craft” jobs, such as teaching, health care, and revenue administration, apparently negating (at least in the short term) the behavioral economics concern about the crowding out of intrinsic incentives. The available evidence suggests that if policy-makers are sensitive to design and vigilant about the risks of gaming, then PRP may result in performance improvements in these jobs in developing countries. However, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions from the review about the effect of PRP in core civil service jobs for three reasons. First, there are very few studies of PRP in these organizational contexts. The work of senior administrators in the civil service is very different from that of many private sector jobs and is characterized by task complexity and the difficulty of measuring outcomes. Second, although some studies have shown that PRP can work in even the most dysfunctional bureaucracies in developing countries, there are few cases illustrating its effectiveness or otherwise outside OECD settings. Finally, few studies follow PRP effects over time, providing little information on long-term effects and adjustments in staff behavior. We conclude that more empirical research is needed to examine the effects of PRP in the core civil service in developing countries.

In an environment of turbulence and an era of intensifying hostility to public servants, how can we chart a more positive pathway for the field of public administration and management? In the 2025 Donald C. Stone Lecture at the American Society for Public Administration, new foundations to inform a more human(e) approach were explored as a way of addressing this question. Important dynamics in the current environment are sketched out, followed by four ideas to shape thinking on the future: positivity, complexity, humility, and empathy. Each of these big ideas is presented as pieces of a broader movement toward a new paradigm of public administration and management.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how data mining techniques can improve the performance management of the judiciary, helping judges in steering position with specific and timely measures. It explores different approaches to analyse the length of trials, based on the case of an Italian judicial office.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a temporal analysis to compare the timeliness of trials, using data and process mining approaches with the support of a specific software to represent graphically the results. Data were gathered directly from the office data base, improving precision and the opportunity to monitor specific phases of the trials.FindingsThe results highlight the progress that can be reached using data mining approaches to develop performance analyses helping courts to correct inefficiencies and to manage the personnel distribution, overcoming the critical comments arisen against traditional KPI (Raine, 2000). The work proposes a methodology to analyse cases deriving from different juridical matters useful to set up a performance monitoring system that could be diffused to different courts.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the research regard the analysis of a selected, limited number of cases in terms of judicial matters.Practical implicationsData mining techniques can improve the performance management processes in providing more accurate feedback to the judicial offices leaders and increasing the organisational learning.Social implicationsThe performance of the judiciary is one of the relevant issues that emerged in the recent decade in the field of public sector reforms. Several reasons explain this interest, which has gone beyond the specific legal disciplines to involve public policy, management, economics and ICT studies.Originality/valueConsidering the literature on the judiciary (Visser et al., 2019; Di Martino et al., 2021; Troisi and Alfano, 2023) the contribution differs as both the methodological approach and the predictive analysis considers the intrinsic differences that define cases belonging to different juridical matters performing a cross-sectional analysis, with a specific focus of process variants.

This paper reviews the recent empirical evidence on privatization in developing countries, with particular emphasis on new areas of research such as the distributional impacts of privatization. Overall, the literature now reflects a more cautious and nuanced evaluation of privatization. Thus, private ownership alone is no longer argued to automatically generate economic gains in developing economies; pre-conditions (especially the regulatory infrastructure) and an appropriate process of privatization are important for attaining a positive impact. These comprise a list which is often challenging in developing countries: well-designed and sequenced reforms; the implementation of complementary policies; the creation of regulatory capacity; attention to poverty and social impacts; and strong public communication. Even so, the studies do identify the scope for efficiency-enhancing privatization that also promotes equity in developing countries.

The scope and intensity of policy transfer has increased in recent years as developing countries have drawn on public sector reform programmes based on new public management practices originally designed in western democracies. However, there is mounting evidence that to be successful, reform programmes must be adapted to local contexts. This article demonstrates that national government control of policy transfer can enable localisation which in turn enhances the effectiveness of public reforms. Analysis of the Position Classification System - which sought to enhance accountability, efficiency and professionalism in the civil service in Bhutan - highlights two conditions that enable domestic control of the policy transfer process: strong internal motivation for engaging in policy transfer and the establishment or adaptation of institutions to manage processes of policy transfer. We conclude that when these conditions apply, a developing country can engage in successful voluntary policy transfer and retain control of the process.

Following on from the success of the editors' previous book, New Public Management: The Transformation of Ideas and Practice, which examined the public reform process up to the end of the last decade, this new volume draws on the previous knowledge both theoretically and empirically. It examines and debates the post-new public management reform development in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. The ideal follow-up to the previous volume, this book includes many of the same contributors in addition to some fresh voices, and is a must for anyone looking for an integrated framework of analysis. Comprehensive and analytical, it is an important contribution to the study of public administration and particularly to the reform of public management. Tom Christensen is from the University of Oslo and Per Lægreid is from the University of Bergen, both in Norway. Contents: Preface; Introduction - theoretical approach and research questions, Tom Christensen and Per Lægreid; Still fragmented government or reassertion of the centre?, Tom Christensen, Amund Lie and Per Lægreid; Reform design and performance in Australia and New Zealand, John Halligan; Types of state organisations: arguments, doctrines and changes beyond new public management, Paul G. Roness; Convergence and standardization in telecommunications regulation: trajectories of change and reform in the Asian Pacific regulatory state, Martin Painter; Organizing immigration - a comparison of New Zealand and Norway , Tom Christensen, Per Lægreid and Richard Norman; Central banking reform across the world: only by night are all cats grey, Martin Marcussen; Quests for transparency: signs of a new institutional era in the health care field, Maria Blomgren and Kirstin Sahlin-Andersson; Public-private partnerships: a comparative perspective on Victoria and Denmark, Carsten Greve and Graeme Hodge; (The difficult art of) outsourcing welfare services: experiences from Sweden and New Zealand, Anders Forssell and Lars Norén; New public management and the ghost of Max Weber: exorcised or still haunting?, Robert Gregory; Bibliography; Index.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to discuss the idea that new public management (NPM) would be passé. Design/methodology/approach – The article is based on a review of existing theories. Findings – The article argues that NPM has two dimensions, namely the minimization of the role of government vis-à-vis society and the improvement of the internal performance of the public sector. Whereas the first dimension is indeed more and more disputed nowadays this does not imply this also goes for the second dimension. The conclusion of this article calls for explanatory empirical research in order to explain the increasing variance in reforms among countries, by investigating which factors are determinative for decisions by governments to turn one way or the other. Practical implications – It is far from certain which way the public sector is heading in the so-called post-NPM era. Some countries are still implementing NPM-kind of reforms, either by downsizing or by introducing performance management. Other countries have chosen alternative paths. All this implies an increased variance between countries in the direction public sector reforms take. It requires quite different support from administrative sciences compared to the one-size-fits-all recommendations for public sector reforms – in conformity with the maxims of NPM – as witnessed in the past decades. Originality/value – The article contributes to the discussion about the role of NPM today. It presents original conclusions about diverging developments based on the unique comprehensive literature review on the topic.

This study examines how the use of magic concepts in public sector reform can simultaneously promote and undermine the achievement of reform. By integrating insights from magic concepts and paradox theory, the study suggests deploying magic concepts in reform can activate clusters of organizational paradoxes that in turn create unique opportunities for transformative change. Case studies from two Scandinavian municipalities illustrate the double-edged nature of magic concepts in reform: Only when an organization has the capacity to deal with heightened paradoxical tensions in an integrative way can the magic concept effectively contribute to achieving the desired reform outcomes.