IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecl/harjfk/rwp14-026.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Distributed End Users Often Limit Public Financial Management Reform Success

Author

Listed:
  • Andrews, Matt

    (Harvard University)

Abstract

Externally supported Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms often have limited success in developing countries. The reforms commonly introduce new laws and systems that are not fully implemented or used, especially by distributed agents--budgeters, accountants, and such in sector ministries, provinces, and districts. This article asks why this should be expected and what could be done about it. It builds a theory of institutional change and tests such using data from a survey of public sector accountants in Eastern and Southern African countries--one sub-set of which was distributed. The evidence supports a simple explanation of why distributed end users often limit PFM reform success: they are likely to support incumbent institutions and question reform alternatives and are less engaged in reforms than more concentrated agents who champion reforms. The article suggests that research and practice needs to better account for the influence of distributed agents on externally supported reform success.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrews, Matt, 2014. "Why Distributed End Users Often Limit Public Financial Management Reform Success," Working Paper Series rwp14-026, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp14-026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/workingpapers/citation.aspx?PubId=9426&type=WPN
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto F. Alesina & Roberto Perotti, 1999. "Budget Deficits and Budget Institutions," NBER Chapters, in: Fiscal Institutions and Fiscal Performance, pages 13-36, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Andrews,Matt, 2013. "The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107016330, September.
    3. Andrews, Matthew, 2008. "Creating Space for Effective Political Engagement in Development," Working Paper Series rwp08-015, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    4. Matt Andrews, 2010. "How Far Have Public Financial Management Reforms Come in Africa?," CID Working Papers 208, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    5. Andrews, Matthew R. & McConnell, Jesse & Wescott, Alison, 2010. "Development as Leadership-led Change," Scholarly Articles 4449099, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    6. Andrews, Matt, 2010. "How Far Have Public Financial Management Reforms Come in Africa?," Working Paper Series rwp10-018, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    7. Andrews, Matthew R., 2010. "How Far Have Public Financial Management Reforms Come in Africa?," Scholarly Articles 4448885, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matt Andrews & Nick Fanning, 2015. "Mapping Peer Learning Initiatives in Public Sector Reforms in Development," CID Working Papers 298, Center for International Development at Harvard University.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matt Andrews, 2014. "Why Distributed End Users Often Limit Public Financial Management Reform Success," CID Working Papers 283, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    2. Matt Andrews, 2013. "Explaining Positive Deviance in Public Sector Reforms in Development," CID Working Papers 267, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    3. Matt Andrews, 2013. "Explaining Positive Deviance in Public Sector Reforms in Development," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-117, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Andrews, Matt, 2013. "Explaining Positive Deviance in Public Sector Reforms in Development," Working Paper Series rwp13-040, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    5. Andrews, Matt, 2015. "Explaining Positive Deviance in Public Sector Reforms in Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 197-208.
    6. Andrews, Matt, 2013. "Explaining Positive Deviance in Public Sector Reforms in Development," WIDER Working Paper Series 117, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Lassou, Philippe Jacques Codjo & Hopper, Trevor, 2016. "Government accounting reform in an ex-French African colony: The political economy of neocolonialism," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 39-57.
    8. Andrews, Matt, 2015. "Has Sweden Injected Realism into Public Financial Management Reforms in Partner Countries?," Working Paper Series 15-063, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    9. Matt Andrews & Tim McNaught & Salimah Samji, 2018. "Opening Adaptation Windows onto Public Financial Management Reform Gaps in Mozambique," CID Working Papers 341, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    10. Matt Andrews, 2015. "Has Sweden Injected Realism into Public Financial Management Reforms in Partner Countries?," CID Working Papers 303, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    11. Fritz, Verena & Hedger, Edward & Lopes, Ana Paula Fialho, 2011. "Strengthening Public Financial Management in Postconflict Countries," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 54, pages 1-7, April.
    12. Srivastava, Vivek & Larizza, Marco, 2012. "Working with the grain for reforming the public service : a live example from Sierra Leone," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6152, The World Bank.
    13. Andrews, Matt, 2013. "How Do Governments Get Great?," Working Paper Series rwp13-020, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    14. Verena Fritz & Edward Hedger & Ana Paula Fialho Lopes, 2011. "Strengthening Public Financial Management in Postconflict Countries," World Bank Publications - Reports 10097, The World Bank Group.
    15. Tavakoli, Heidi & Cessay, Ismaila & Cole, Winston, 2014. "Success when stars align: Public financial management reforms in Sierra Leone," WIDER Working Paper Series 081, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Lledó, Victor & Poplawski-Ribeiro, Marcos, 2013. "Fiscal Policy Implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 79-91.
    17. Jayasinghe, Kelum & Adhikari, Pawan & Soobaroyen, Teerooven & Wynne, Andy & Malagila, John & Abdurafiu, Noah, 2021. "Government accounting reforms in Sub-Saharan African countries and the selective ignorance of the epistemic community: A competing logics perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    18. Era Dabla-Norris & Jim Brumby & Annette Kyobe & Zac Mills & Chris Papageorgiou, 2012. "Investing in public investment: an index of public investment efficiency," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 235-266, September.
    19. Badru Bukenya & Sam Hickey, 2019. "The shifting fortunes of the economic technocracy in Uganda: Caught between state-building and regime survival?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-121-19, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    20. Matt Andrews, 2013. "Who Really Leads Development?," CID Working Papers 258, Center for International Development at Harvard University.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp14-026. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ksharus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.