IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rug/rugwps/13-841.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Politics by numbers? An exploration of councillors’ apparent use of financial information during the budget discussion in Flemish municipal councils

Author

Listed:
  • B. BUYLEN
  • J. CHRISTIAENS

Abstract

Previous studies demonstrate that there is skepticism about politicians’ use of financial information. Although this issue is generally recognized in literature, only very few researchers focused on real use of financial information in political budgeting practice. While many studies discussed various technical and political budgeting aspects (e.g. political budget cycles, reform rhetoric, introduction accrual budgeting ….) the use of financial information in the area of budgeting is often overlooked. This paper contributes to our understanding of financial information use by politicians, especially through its adoption of an innovative method of data collection and - analysis, i.e. categorizing the minutes of budget debates in municipal councils. Politicians’ apparent financial information use is measured by analyzing the presence of financial information in councilors’ contribution during the budget discussion in Flemish municipal councils. Firstly, we bring a quantitative overview of the reference to financial information in the budget discussion. Secondly, we assess the impact of some political and economic factors on politicians’ use. Data are collected from 121 councils’ minutes of the budget discussion combined with interviews of key witness civil servants. Results reveal a predominance of budgetary information in the discussion and significant influence of both political and economic factors.

Suggested Citation

  • B. Buylen & J. Christiaens, 2013. "Politics by numbers? An exploration of councillors’ apparent use of financial information during the budget discussion in Flemish municipal councils," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 13/841, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    • Handle: RePEc:rug:rugwps:13/841
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wps-feb.ugent.be/Papers/wp_13_841.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henk Ter Bogt, 2001. "Politicians and output-oriented performance evaluation in municipalities," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 621-643.
    2. Benoît Maux & Yvon Rocaboy & Timothy Goodspeed, 2011. "Political fragmentation, party ideology and public expenditures," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 43-67, April.
    3. G. Jan van Helden & Åge Johnsen & Jarmo Vakkuri, 2008. "Distinctive research patterns on public sector performance measurement of public administration and accounting disciplines," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(5), pages 641-651, September.
    4. Stijn Goeminne & Benny Geys & Carine Smolders, 2008. "Political fragmentation and projected tax revenues: evidence from Flemish municipalities," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 15(3), pages 297-315, June.
    5. Vicente Pina & Lourdes Torres & Ana Yetano, 2009. "Accrual Accounting in EU Local Governments: One Method, Several Approaches," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 765-807.
    6. Albert Solé-Ollé, 2006. "The effects of party competition on budget outcomes: Empirical evidence from local governments in Spain," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 145-176, January.
    7. Lounsbury, Michael, 2008. "Institutional rationality and practice variation: New directions in the institutional analysis of practice," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 349-361.
    8. José Caamaño-Alegre & Santiago Lago-Peñas & Francisco Reyes-Santias & Aurora Santiago-Boubeta, 2011. "Budget Transparency in Local Governments: An Empirical Analysis," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1102, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    9. Giroux, Gary & McLelland, Andrew J., 2003. "Governance structures and accounting at large municipalities," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 203-230.
    10. Berit Adam & Christiane Behm, 2006. "The Use of Budget Reforms to Modernize Governance in German Local Government," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 217-220, September.
    11. Irvine Lapsley, 2009. "New Public Management: The Cruellest Invention of the Human Spirit?1," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(1), pages 1-21, March.
    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. Nogueira, Sónia Paula S. & Jorge, Susana Margarida F., 2016. "Explanatory factors for the use of the financial report in decision-making: Evidence from Local Government in Portugal," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 216-226.

    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. Stefanie Vanneste & Stijn Goeminne, 2020. "The role of the past in public policy: empirical evidence of the long-term effect of past policy and politics on the local budget balance," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 75-99, March.
    2. B. Buylen & J. Christiaens, 2012. "Why do some party leaders in Flemish municipal councils get more acquainted with New Public Management principles than others ? An investigation into the impact of their individual characteristics," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 12/821, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    3. Tóth, Balázs, 2021. "Milyen kapcsolatban állnak a közszféra reformjai a gazdaságpolitikai paradigmákkal? [How reforms of the public sector relate to the paradigms of economic policy]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 205-222.
    4. Palermo, Tommaso, 2014. "Accountability and expertise in public sector risk management: a case study," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59948, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Joaquín Artés & Ignacio Jurado, 2018. "Government fragmentation and fiscal deficits: a regression discontinuity approach," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 367-391, June.
    6. Maran, Laura & Bracci, Enrico & Inglis, Robert, 2018. "Performance management systems' stability: Unfolding the human factor – A case from the Italian public sector," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 324-339.
    7. Boll, David & Sidki, Marcus, 2021. "The influence of political fragmentation on public enterprises: Evidence from German municipalities," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Paulo Reis Mourao & Mihaela Bronić & Branko Stanić, 2020. "Discussing the determinants of online budget transparency based on a spatial regression analysis of Croatian cities and municipalities: Do good neighbours make you better?," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 268-287, September.
    9. Hyndman, Noel & McKillop, Donal, 2018. "Public services and charities: Accounting, accountability and governance at a time of change," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 143-148.
    10. Cristina Silvia NISTOR & Cristina Alexandrina ȘTEFĂNESCU, 2021. "The Link Between Public Management and Accounting from the Point of View of Performance," CECCAR Business Review, Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR), vol. 2(1), pages 60-72, January.
    11. Elaine Stewart & Ciaran Connolly, 2021. "Recent UK Central Government Accounting Reforms: Claimed Benefits and Experienced Outcomes," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 57(3), pages 557-592, September.
    12. Cohen, Sandra & Leventis, Stergios, 2013. "Effects of municipal, auditing and political factors on audit delay," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 40-53.
    13. Roberto Cabaleiro‐Casal & Enrique Buch‐Gómez, 2021. "Female politicians in municipal councils and fiscal performance," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 289-314, July.
    14. Silvia Pilonato & Patrizio Monfardini, 2022. "Managerial reforms, institutional complexity and individuals: an empirical analysis of higher education," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(2), pages 365-387, June.
    15. Anne Riviere & Marie Boitier, 2011. "Liberté et responsabilité des universités : Comment le contrôle de gestion participe à la construction d'un système de pilotage de la performance ?," Post-Print hal-00650567, HAL.
    16. Reiner Eichenberger & David Stadelmann, 2009. "Consequences of Debt Capitalization: Property Ownership and Debt/Tax Choice," CREMA Working Paper Series 2009-08, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    17. Ball, Amanda & Craig, Russell, 2010. "Using neo-institutionalism to advance social and environmental accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 283-293.
    18. Kristien Werck & Bruno Heyndels & Benny Geys, 2008. "The impact of ‘central places’ on spatial spending patterns: evidence from Flemish local government cultural expenditures," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 32(1), pages 35-58, March.
    19. Ashraf, Junaid & Uddin, Shahzad, 2016. "New public management, cost savings and regressive effects: A case from a less developed country," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 18-33.
    20. Le Maux, Benoit & Rocaboy, Yvon, 2012. "A simple microfoundation for the utilization of fragmentation indexes to measure the performance of a team," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 491-493.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    New Public Management; Financial information; Councilors; Budget.;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:rug:rugwps:13/841. 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: Nathalie Verhaeghe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferugbe.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.