This report analyses budget practices and innovations in twenty-two OECD countries.

Traditionally, economics training in public finances has focused more on tax than public expenditure issues, and within expenditure, more on policy considerations than the more mundane matters of public expenditure management. For many years, the IMF's Public Expenditure Management Division has answered specific questions raised by fiscal economists on such missions. Based on this experience, these guidelines arose from the need to provide a general overview of the principles and practices observed in three key aspects of public expenditure management: budget preparation, budget execution, and cash planning. For each aspect of public expenditure management, the guidelines identify separately the differing practices in four groups of countries - the francophone systems, the Commonwealth systems, Latin America, and those in the transition economies. Edited by Barry H. Potter and Jack Diamond, this publication is intended for a general fiscal, or a general budget, advisor interested in the macroeconomic dimension of public expenditure management.

This analysis of budgetary systems and policies across the world examines how politics, culture, and economics influence public finance.

Comparative Public Budgeting and Finance is a collection of original chapters examining public budgeting issues, methods, and techniques in countries around the world. Each chapter explores the history of the budget system and how it fits within the political system in the country, as well as the legal foundation and any reforms that affect the budget system. A discussion of revenue and expenditure allocations is included in each section. Each chapter also examines topics such as: budget behavior and decision making, capital budgeting, analytical processes, budget processes, intergovernmental relations, budget reform, performance budgeting, and financial management. Each chapter concludes with a list of thought provoking questions, an appendix, end notes and a glossary which provides a point of departure for classroom discussion as well as individual student research on each country.