Public Sector Economics, Vol. 43 No. 1, 2019.
Uvodnik
https://doi.org/10.3326/pse.43.1.1
Introduction to the Public Sector Economics 2018 Conference – Fiscal Openness: Transparency, Participation and Accountability in Fiscal Policies
Katarina Ott
orcid.org/0000-0003-2242-4181
; Institute of Public Finance, Zagreb
Dubravko Mihaljek
; Bank for International Settlements, Basel, Switzerland
Sažetak
The Institute of Public Finance, publisher of the journal Public Sector Economics, together with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the International Budget Partnership, held its third annual conference in Zagreb on 26 October 2018. The main theme of the conference was fiscal openness: transparency, participation and accountability in fiscal policies.
Openness is widely recognized as an important feature of good fiscal policy. By enhancing governments’ accountability, citizens’ trust, and reducing opportunities for corruption, greater fiscal openness may contribute to a more efficient collection and distribution of public resources. Researchers around the world and international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the OECD, the World Bank, the International Budget Partnership, the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency, and the Open Government Partnership are showing growing interest in fiscal openness. Although expanding, this field of inquiry is still new, and many basic questions remain open. Which aspects of fiscal openness should be targeted? Where does demand for fiscal openness come from? Why are some governments more fiscally open than others? What are the effects of greater fiscal openness in practice? What is the role of technology, in particular of the internet and social media, in generating the demand for more and better fiscal information? How can we harness technology to provide such information? How can countries without extensive experience in fiscal openness benefit from those that have seen its positive effects?
The Institute of Public Finance has been involved in research on fiscal openness for many years, particularly with respect to budget transparency and public participation at national and sub-national levels. Currently, the Institute is coordinating a project “Understanding, monitoring and analysing local government budget transparency: Case study of Croatia and Slovenia – Open Local Budget Index (OLBI)”, funded by the Croatian Science Foundation (IP-09-2014). One of the most visible outcomes of our research has been the constant improvement of the average online budget transparency of Croatian counties, cities and municipalities and increased interest in the topic within Croatia. Therefore, it seemed natural to focus on fiscal openness and invite contributions on the topic from around the world.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
217788
URI
Datum izdavanja:
11.3.2019.
Posjeta: 829 *