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Budget Transparency with Open Spending Austria
2021
This entry has been realised in the framework of the H2020-MSCA-RISE-2018 project "LoGov - Local Government and the Changing Urban-Rural Interplay". LoGov aims to provide solutions for local governments that address the fundamental challenges resulting from urbanisation. To address this complex issue, 18 partners from 17 countries and six continents share their expertise and knowledge in the realms of public law, political science, and public administration. LoGov identifies, evaluates, compares, and shares innovative practices that cope with the impact of changing urban-rural relations in five major local government areas: (1) local responsibilities and public services, (2) local financial arrangements, (3) structure of local government, (4) intergovernmental relations of local governments, and (5) people's participation in local decision-making. The present entry addresses local financial arrangements in Austria. The entry forms part of the LoGov Report on Austria. T...
Budgeting and Budgetary Institutions
2007
Conclusions 48 Notes 49 References 49 The Budget and Its Coverage 53 Salvatore Schiavo-Campo Good Governance and Public Expenditure Management 54 The Meaning of Fiduciary Risk in Public Finance 55 The Unity of the Budget 55 Coverage, Periodicity, and Definitions 56 Principles of Expenditure Policy Choices and of Budget Coverage 60 Extrabudgetary Funds 61 Beyond Direct Expenditure 72 Basic Budget Legislation 81 Notes 86 References 87 Capital Budgets: Theory and Practice 89 A. Premchand Evolution 90 Current Practices 101 Notes 108 References and Other Sources 108 Budget Methods and Practices 109 Alta Fölscher The Nature of the Problem 109 Beyond Incrementalism: Rationality and Incentives in Budget Methods 118 Conclusion 134 Note 134 References 134 vi Contents 3 4 2 A Primer on Performance Budgeting
Is Austrian budgetary policy still “political”? A cross-time comparison of budget speeches
Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft
This paper investigates whether and how the democratic feedback loop between the government and parliament has been affected in Austrian budgetary policy-making. The question stems from the observation that since 2009 the budgetary policymaking process has been substantially affected by both national and European reforms, with some scholars arguing that budgetary policy today has become a bureaucratic rather than a political exercise. Through a comparative content analysis of finance ministers' budget speeches we show that this is not the case and that instead-compared to the past-the share of political discourse has remained substantial. Furthermore, we find that today Austrian governments present the parliament with more detailed information about their planned expenditures and taxations, and that these plans are linked more strongly to the governing parties' manifestos rather than the European country-specific recommendations.
A Decomposition of Austria's General Government Budget into Structural and Cyclical Components
2008
The paper describes a model for the computation of trend output and the structural budget deficit in Austria. The calculation of trend output is based on a production function approach within a small macroeconomic model of the Austrian economy. A decomposition of public budgets into cyclical and structural components shows responsiveness to business cycle variations, and allows a better assessment of the sustainability of the budget balance. The model will be used in future forecasting rounds and links macroeconomic and budgetary variables of the WIFO-forecast to estimates for trend output and the structural budget deficit. Until now, such decomposition has not been part of the regular WIFO-forecast.
Gender Budgeting in the Constit ution – A Look at Formal and Real Conditions in Austria
2010
According to Art. 13 (3) of the Austrian Constitution, which has been in force since January 1, 2009, »[t]he federal state, the ›Länder‹, and the municipalities must aim at achieving the actual equality of women and men in budget processes.« Austria thereby became the first country to embed gender budgeting and make it legally binding for all public administrative bodies. This provision was introduced in the wake of a farreaching budget reform, the core element of which was the inclusion of outcome-oriented budget processes. In addition to the Article cited at the beginning, it was standardized under constitutional law that outcome-orientatedness – to be introduced by 2013 – must be applied »in particular with regard to the aim of the actual equality of women and men« (Art. 51(8) b-vg). In this way, Austria has imposed some exacting requirements on itself at constitutional level. The point of departure for gender budgeting is that budgets constitute a central element of political ac...
Austria: Public Sector Inefficiencies Have Become Less Affordable
OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 2011
Austria: public sector inefficiencies have become less affordable Performance of fiscal policy, while good in international comparison, is not sufficient to prepare for future ageing-related spending increases. Subject to macroeconomic developments, the pace of consolidation could be more ambitious than currently planned, with a view to reducing the debt burden below 60% of GDP by 2020. Austrian fiscal policies have tended to be pro-cyclical in upturns, mainly because spending was not adequately kept in check. Stronger fiscal rules and a reform of intergovernmental fiscal relations could help contain expenditure dynamics. Efficiency-raising reforms in key spending areas such as pensions and other social expenditures, health, and education are also highly needed to reduce spending and ensure the provision of high-quality public services at lower cost. In this regard, Austria should make full use of the performance budgeting framework it plans to introduce from 2013. Higher potential growth could also take off some of the pressure on public finances. There remains significant room to rebalance the tax structure towards less distortive sources of revenue, thus supporting employment and growth.
2014
In Austria, gender responsive budgeting has a strong legal basis, by being enshrined in the Austrian Federal Constitution. Gender responsive budgeting and gender impact assessment were introduced at the federal level in 2013 as an integral element of a major budget reform. Of course, in the second year after the implementation of gender responsive budgeting a systematic overall evaluation and assessment of its result – based on comprehensive experience and a systematic evaluation framework – is hardly possible. At the current stage of implementation, only some first impressions can be compiled with respect to results. More fruitful is the attempt to identify challenges, obstacles and constraints encountered in the course of implementation, as many of these have become obvious already quite at the beginning of the implementation process. The paper focuses on the strengths, but also on the challenges and constraints rooted in the specific Austrian approach to introduce gender responsi...
Policymarkers' preferences and the optimal budget for Austria
International Advances in Economic Research, 1996
Optimal budgetary policies for the period 1993–2000 are calculated for Austria within the framework of a problem of quantitative economic policy. An intertemporal objective function is minimized subject to the constraints of a macroeconometric model. Exogenous variables of the model are forecast by time series methods. Using the optimum control algorithm OPTCON, approximately optimal budgetary policies are determined. The sensitivity
Federal Budget 2003-04: Postponing the Goal of a Balanced Budget
A stagnating economy and a marked rise in unemployment prevented the attainment of a balanced public budget in 2002. Because of the persistent cyclical weakness and of the tax reform envisaged for 2004-05, a balanced budget position will be achieved only after 2007. In spite of a noticeable increase in the debt ratio, which is the result of statistical revisions, Austria's budgetary position compares favourably with the EU average. To achieve medium-term fiscal consolidation the government aims at reducing the revenue and expenditure ratios. Starting with 2004 there will be a decline in the share of transfer expenditures. Tax revenues will gain in importance within total federal revenues; a shift from direct taxes to indirect taxes can be observed.