The February 2019 issue of Public Money & Management is once again a very international issue, as it looks at reforms in no less than six individual jurisdictions, as big as China and as small as Bougainville, all the way from the east to the west, and also presents some multinational pieces of work. It seems that reforms in the area of public financial management are not restricted, neither by size nor by geographic location. However, all of the articles in this issue to some degree address that the reforms are being influenced, at least to some extent, by international standards or other types of guidance.
Globalization has, however, come under considerable pressure. Nationalist parties or candidates are doing well in elections around the globe—sometimes even taking power for the next legislative period. Therefore, the question needs to be asked, are the international developments discussed in this issue a thing of the past? Or are they perhaps a thing of the future, anticipating the next change of the course of travel?
However, it has to be acknowledged that public financial management is not usually a partisan exercise. Nationalist or populist parties are not focusing on this topic. Their focus is primarily on immigration. In fact, public financial management reforms are often approved in parliament almost unanimously, which means equally with the support of nationalist and more internationally-oriented parties. The topic is not a very political one. After all, which party or which politician is (openly) against good governance and transparency? Even less so the media, which to some degree themselves rely on access to information and on transparency—at least if they are dedicated to non-fake news!
Therefore, the internationally-oriented articles in this issue of Public Money & Management are not thing of the past. International orientation of public financial management is perhaps rather timeless, reflecting the reality that sound concepts are not limited to a specific region, size or other specificities of the jurisdiction.
If this assumption holds true for good and sound ideas, why would it not be true for poor experiences or difficulties experienced? Some of our articles take a rather critical stance. Why should this experience be limited to national borders, if positive experience is not?
The bottom line is that international experiences help each and every one of Public Money & Management’s readers to draw their own conclusions based on a maximal set of experiences. As academic scholars, we are dedicated to improving common knowledge and to minimizing repeated errors or misperceptions. Public financial management has still a long way to go. For example, recent reports by such international organizations as the International Monetary Fund have highlighted that there is still much room for improvement and plenty of work to do. This current issue of Public Money & Management is very much focused on the areas highlighted by international organizations as needing more attention:
Public sector performance.
Prevention of corruption.
Budgeting and accrual accounting for assets and non-debt liabilities.
Auditing.
Risk management.
Call for papers: Public Money & Management (PMM) theme on ‘Managing local government debt in China’
Guest editors: Meili Niu, Ehtisham Ahmad and Xiaohu Wang
Managing government debt, especially at the subnational level, is a daunting challenge in many countries. The global financial crisis in 2008 revealed many fiscal structural issues and systematic fiscal risks. In China, with falling exports, the government stimulated domestic demand by RMB 4 trillion in 2009, largely through credit expansion by bank lending at the local level involving local government financing vehicles (LGFVs). The debt overhang remains a constraint on sustainable development today, as China may need another round of fiscal stimulus to offset trade deficits.
There are no precise figures available of subnational government debts in China. However, the scale of government debt, especially the huge amount of hidden and contingent debt in local governments, is estimated to be very high. In this PMM theme issue, we call papers on the following topics:
What are the political, economic, and institutional contexts for local governments to issue debt in China? How are both formal and informal tools used to accumulate debt—especially hidden and contingent debt?
What criteria should be used to ensure that local fiscal risks are sustainable? What are the preconditions for sustainability, and including with local own-source revenues?
How well does debt financing work in China? If public pricing is below long-run marginal cost, are the budgetary support mechanisms clearly identified? Which level of government should provide the support and bear the risks?
What institutional tools have been applied in China to manage debt risk?
How has the local bond market developed since 2015? Compared with other financing tools, how has the bond market worked in promoting economic and social development while maintaining fiscal sustainability? What are the preconditions for a local bond market to work in China?
How well has China implemented public-private partnerships (PPPs)? How are PPP-related assets and liabilities tracked without full balance sheets? Given asymmetric information, how are PPP-related risks evaluated and managed?
The recent policy constraints on local debt have left little room for local governments to generate fiscal resources through formal borrowing. Given this, what will be the direction for financing local development?
How is the resource mobilization agenda to be developed for the local government? For example, what are the potential local taxes that might fit into the overall national structure of tax policy and administration? How has revenue-sharing and considerable autonomy in spending affected local borrowing? Which kind of incentive structure is likely to be more effective in promoting local government accountability?
PMM publishes 8000-word research papers, 2500-word new development articles, and 1000-word debate articles. See the journal’s website for more information about preparing a paper for PMM: www.tandfonline.com/rpmm. Research papers will be double blind refereed.
The deadline for proposal submissions is 15 March 2019 (to Professor Meili Niu at [email protected]). Authors of accepted proposals will be invited to submit a manuscript by 30 June 2019 for peer review. Authors of conditionally-accepted manuscripts are expected to submit their revisions by 30 September 2019. Submissions to PMM must be original work and not under consideration by any other publication.