Public Budgeting and Finance

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, massive fires etc. inflict serious damage and so seem to be bad for the economy.

Depending on the experience in different countries, the negative impact on economic indicators mostly occurs in the short run, while in the long run these effects are transient and negligible for the economy and the state budget.

Most noticeable is the direct impact of the natural disasters that we saw with the aftermath of the 21 September 2019 and 26 November 2019 earthquake in Albania. This effect was seen in the damage to infrastructure, the capital of businesses and individuals, and the potential future threat to the exploitation of natural resources.

Currently, Botswana is one of high income economies in Africa. Since independence in 1966, the government has put emphasis on the development of human capital through education and skills development of the citizens. The country has dedicated much of the government funds to education to the extent possible while the contribution and payoffs of education expenditure have been limited. This study examines data from 1960-2013 and attempts to link GDP and education expenditure in a long run framework. It has been noted that member states of the United Nations are under pressure to achieve development goals and countries like Botswana need to estimate not only public spending requirements and the macroeconomic implications of financing them, but also the potential social and economic rewards associated with education. Estimations show that at least 40% of people in developing economies are illiterate and governments intend to leave no stone unturned in eliminating this problem. This study applies the Johansen cointegration test and Granger causality procedure to examine the long run affiliations of the variables. Astoundingly, for Botswana economy, there is no long run comovement between GDP and education expenditure for the period 1960-2013. It is advised to review the quality of education and the programmes offered by the local institutions. Jel code:

In the present report, after reviewing the allocation formulas of earmarked and block grants for decentralized institutions, five major problems of the system are identified:
• Underfunding of local governments in Macedonia (subsection 3.1). Shares of local revenues in terms of GDP are low compared to other Europeans countries, even those who like Slovenia did not entrust to municipalities the responsibility for paying teacher salaries.
• Decentralization is institutional, not functional (subsection 3.2). Back in 2005, Macedonia transferred to municipalities a large selection of public institutions, but the laws, and the financing instruments, indicate that the functions were not in fact transferred.
• Ineffective central control over employment levels (subsection 3.3). Macedonia maintains a strict and costly system of control over local employment, even in cases when an existing employee retires. The system hampers proper functioning of some of the decentralized institutions but allows employment expansion in other sectors.
• Very low local financial involvement in the financing of decentralized sectors (subsection 3.4). Most decentralized institutions, even preschools, are financed almost exclusively from grants from the national budget, with very little local contribution from own revenues. They are not seen as own institutions by most municipalities.
• Debts related to obligatory transport of students of secondary schools (subsection 3.5). For too long has Macedonia accepted without any intervention growing problem of blocked accounts of many secondary schools.

The paper formulates three strategies and several specific recommendations how to overcome weaknesses of Macedonia  system of local government finance and make it more transparent, predictable, and fair.

Drawing from Scharpf's joint decision making approach and his concept of the joint decision trap, the following paper researches the development of municipal infrastructure investment in relation to the overall financial situation. The analyzed data are being provided by a representative panel survey among 4,000 German municipalities conducted in 2016 by the German Institute of Urban Affairs. The starting point of the analysis is the description of a dilemma: growing financial disparities between the municipalities and a loss-making infrastructure of many cities and towns leads to an institutionalization of a growing number of grant programmes and forms of mixed financing. These programmes—so the analysis guiding thesis—do not provide adequate solutions for the hetero-geneity of municipal needs. By neglecting their individual needs they cannot take into account the growing disparities of municipal financial situations. Rather, they produce an institutional setting, which fosters sub-optimal policy-outcomes and is resilient to changes.

En este artículo analizamos la evolución de la presión fiscal en España en el periodo
1983 – 2008. Las sucesivas reformas fiscales habidas en España, la propia evolución
del ciclo económico, así como el elevado y cambiante nivel de economía sumergida
introducen importantes sesgos en las estimaciones oficiales. Por ello hemos tratado
de revelar las debilidades de tales estimaciones así como aportar nuestro propio
cálculo. Nuestros hallazgos apuntan a una creciente brecha entre los datos oficiales y
la presión fiscal efectivamente soportada por los ciudadanos. Actualmente la presión
fiscal real se sitúa entre 6 y 7 puntos por debajo de los niveles que indica la OCDE.
La presión fiscal efectiva es pro – cíclica, e incrementos en el tipo mínimo del IRPF
y de las cotizaciones sociales elevan la presión fiscal. Incrementos en el tipo
máximo del IRPF y el IVA la reducen.

The article examines five areas novice instructors should consider before teaching public finance. First, instructors should ascertain their comfort level along the qualitative-quantitative continuum. This ranges from a high-level overview of the budgetary process, politics, players, and outcomes (qualitative) before descending into spreadsheets
with formulas for decision making (quantitative). Second, instructors should know which resources to assemble including textbooks, government documents, and spreadsheet guidebooks. Third, instructors should understand the department’s expectations for the
course along the qualitative-quantitative continuum based on students’ career paths. Fourth, instructors should assess students’ capabilities to grasp budgeting exercises and spreadsheets competently. Finally, instructors should monitor how the course content aligns with regional employers and the academic program’s advisory board. Many academics would argue that these five points are rudimentary for any instructor’s pedagogy, until they teach public finance.

With around half of a person's lifetime health and social care costs occurring in the last year of life it is the variation in the absolute number of deaths, not the age-standardized mortality, which drives the marginal variation in budgetary pressure. The year-to-year variation in the deaths in 397 English and Welsh local government areas were investigated over an 18-year period. Because of size, smaller government areas experience higher volatility than larger ones, however, some locations appear to show higher intrinsic volatility in deaths than others. A method is presented to calculate the financial risk reserve which must be deducted from each year's budget to cover for higher than expected variation-somewhat like an insurance premium. While variation is important, deaths have grown far faster in some locations than others, and this will place greater pressure on the budget against funds allocated via a formula which ignores the effects of the absolute number of deaths on costs.

A tananyag az államháztartásról szóló 2011. évi CXCV. törvény és végrehajtási rendelete, az államháztartás számviteléről szóló 4/2013. (I. 11.) Korm. rendelet, valamint más jogszabályok releváns rendelkezéseit ismerteti. Bemutatja a költségvetési törvény előkészítésének, végrehajtásának és a zárszámadás előkészítésének lényeges pontjait. Emellett betekintést nyújt a Magyar Államkincstár tevékenységébe és a költségvetési szervekkel való együttműködés gyakorlatába, ismerteti az információs rendszereket.

This research focused on the evaluation of the effectiveness of financial management practices in Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) on public sector reforms. The main objective of the study was to establish the effectiveness of financial management practices on public sector reforms taking a case study of KeRRA. The specific objectives of the study were to establish the effectiveness of budgeting on public sector reforms in KeRRA, to examine the effectiveness of procurement laws on public sector reforms in KeRRA, to establish the effects of effectiveness of IFMIS – Integrated Financial Management Information Systems on public sector reforms and to determine the effectiveness of work plans on public sector reforms in KeRRA. The study used descriptive research design with a target population of 530 employees; a sample of 222 was selected using simple random sampling technique. The research used both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. Secondary data was obtained from reports and archives. Pilot test was conducted to enhance the instrument validity and reliability. Data collection involved a self - administered questionnaire through drop and picks them later. Descriptive analysis was applied which included mean, frequencies and percentages using assistance of computer packages especially Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 to communicate research findings.The study also used a regression model and correlation to study the relationship between factors. From the model, the factors that significantly influenced public sector reforms included Budgeting process (t = 2.189, p = .032), Procurement process (t = 1.913, p = .059), and IFIMIS Implementation (t = -3.847, p = .001). Work plan implementation (t = .979, p = .331) did not have any significant influence on public sector reforms. KeRRA should include financial reforms as part of their performance contracts target and should ensure that they implement the reforms to their logical conclusion in order to achieve the reforms intended objectives and consequently improve on its performance.

JEL: H61, H72, H83, B26

Results-based management is a life-cycle approach that integrates strategy, people, resources, processes, and measurements to improve decision making. It is best introduced as part of a large public sector reform program. Since this is not commonplace, three operable entry points are capacity development, sectorwide approaches, and decentralization.

The study established the contribution of participatory budgeting in Kabale district local government. Using a cross-sectional research design, in which both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted, the study investigated 117 units; which were randomly and purposively selected from 174 subjects. The study adopted self-administered questionnaires and interview guides to collect data. Frequencies and percentages were used to analyze quantitative data while direct quotes from interviews supported qualitative analysis. Quantitative analysis was supported by software for document analysis (SPSS V 20.0). The study investigated the contribution of participatory budgeting from the viewpoints of information sharing, codes of conduct, facility for citizen complaints, and stakeholders' consultation. The study found stakeholders' consultation as the most important contribution of participatory budgeting. However, it was undermined by the absence of clear rules and procedures that govern budget consultative meetings. Since all the constructs used in measuring the contribution of participatory budgeting in Kabale were above average, it was concluded that participatory budgeting is practiced in Kabale district local government and is generally important. In recommendation, Kabale district local government should spell out the rules and procedures governing participatory budgeting in a statute or guideline. Secondly, the local government should consider holding several consultative meetings with various stakeholders to ensure the priorities of the common person are catered for in the budget estimates for any financial year. Lastly, the local government should consider allocating some funds to facilitate the operations of the office in charge of citizens' complaints.

RÉSUMÉ L'établissement a posteriori de la réalité financière est une préoccupation ancienne et continue. Si le règlement des comptes semble de prime abord être une question technique, celui‑ ci relève avant tout de considérations politiques, révélant notamment la réalité du partage des pouvoirs financiers entre exécutif et législatif. La première partie de cette étude propose d'étudier ce processus de l'Ancien Régime à la IV e République.

The establishment of the financial reality in retrospect is a longstanding and continuous concern. While on the surface the settlement of accounts seems to be a technical question, above all this relates to political considerations, reflecting in particular the reality of sharing financial powers between the executive and legislative branches. The first part of this study examines this process of the " Old Regime " in France's Fourth Republic (1946-1958).

Bütçe  hakkı,  dünya  tarihinde  yaklaşık  800  yıllık  demokrasi
mücadelesinin aşama aşama kaydettiği kazanımların ürünüdür. Magna Carta
(1215), Haklar Dilekçesi (1627), Haklar Yasası (1689), Fransız Büyük İhtilali
(1789) tarihsel sürecin önemli dönemeçlerini oluşturmaktadır. 19 ve 20. yüzyılda
bir dizi bütçe ilkesinin benimsenmesi ve yerleşmesiyle bütçe hakkı
kurumsallaşmıştır. 3 Dünya’da son yıllarda bütçe hakkının gelişme dinamikleri
açısından yeni bir konjonktüre girildiği görülmektedir. Uluslararası düzlemde
(WB, EU, OECD) benimsenen yeni kurum ve kurallar, çoğu ülkenin
gerçekleştirdiği bütçe reformları aracılığıyla hızlı bir biçimde uygulamaya
aktarılmaktadır.  Reformların  ortak  özelliği  kamu  maliyesi  alanında
gelenekselleşen kurum ve kuralların, ekonominin değişen gereksinimleri ve
demokrasinin gelişen standartları ışığında yeniden belirlenmesidir. Değişimin
temel çizgileri; hesap verebilirlik ve mali saydamlık ilkelerinin güçlendirilmesi,
kamu kaynaklarının etkili, ekonomik ve verimli kullanılmasını sağlayacak
yönetsel-mali sistem ve süreçlerin oluşturulması yönündedir. Bu perspektifi
mümkün kılacak değişiklikler bütçe sürecinin tüm aşamalarında bir dizi yenilikle
sağlanmaktadır. Bu değişimin en belirgin sonuçlarından biri parlamentoların
kamu kaynakları üzerindeki rolünün güçlendirilmiş olmasıdır.

Keeping the record of finances and efficient management of money coming in and going out of the business is very important for a business success. If business owners do not manage accounting data properly, they can fall short of money to perform any business activity, which increases the chances of business failure.
Accounting Software gives a real picture of your business financial situation and calculates tax accurately.

Keep reading to learn some of the benefits of using accounting software

Using objective measures of investor protections in 170 countries, I establish that the level of investor protection matters for cross-country differences in GDP growth: countries with stronger protections tend to grow faster than those with poor investor protections.

This research was examined the effect of budget variances on local budget changes using legislature size as moderator. Conceptually, rebudgeting is not different from the initial budget, but at the lower public participation. Previous research found that changes in the budget (PAB) were affected by variances of revenues and expenditures of the previous year budget. The results of this research showed that the revenue variance positively affected PAB, while expenditure variance had no effect. When legislature size (LS) used as moderator, the effect of the revenue variance was stronger on PAB with negative direction, but expenditure variance still has no effect on PAB although it had been moderated by LS.

The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) provides the link between policy priorities and the budget. Given that in developing countries in general, and in Nigeria in particular, there is a disconnection between planning, policy and the budget, the MTEF has increasingly been regarded as central to public expenditure reforms. The objectives of this paper are to review the MTEF and budget performance in Nigeria for the period 2005-2008, and identify the challenges undermining the effective operation of the budgetary processes. The paper gathered that the MTEF is the bridge between the national development plan, its underlying policies and the annual budget. Analysis of available data on budget performance during the review period shows that public finance in Nigeria have not been operated within the specifications of the MTEF and the budget, and the priorities expressed in the budget are not always in sync with national objective plans. Some of the identified challenges to effective public expenditure management in Nigeria include lack of citizen's participation in the process, the bureaucratic and inefficient nature of the civil service, large scale corruption, lack of proper coordination between the national development plan and budget, lack of adequate reforms in other key budget areas, such as execution, monitoring and reporting, lack of political commitment, and lack of adequate coordination between the national and sub-national governments.

En los últimos 10 años, en el Perú se han desarrollado diversos sistemas de información y variados instrumentos de gestión para fortalecer la administración financiera gubernamental en particular y la capacidad del Estado en general para diseñar e implementar políticas públicas más eficaces y eficientes.

Es así como que se implementó el sistema integrado de administración financiera en el sector público (SIAF-SP), el sistema nacional de inversión pública (SNIP), el sistema de planificación estratégica sectorial multianual (SPESEM), el sistema de incentivos mediante convenios de administración por resultados (SICAR), el sistema electrónico de contrataciones y adquisiciones del estado (SEACE), mejoras sustantivas en el sistema de estadísticas y cuentas nacionales (SECN), entre otros.

Asimismo, en materia de Monitoreo y Evaluación (M&E) se desarrollaron diversas iniciativas, tanto a nivel macro (del gobierno en su conjunto), como meso (a nivel sectorial) y micro (en la gestión institucional de las entidades), de mecanismos de control y seguimiento de la ejecución física y financiera, así como también de evaluaciones de impacto sobre todo de los principales proyectos de desarrollo financiados por la cooperación internacional.

Sin embargo, es recién hacia fines del año 2004 en que se puede hablar del diseño e inicio de la implementación de un Sistema de Monitoreo y Evaluación (SME) propiamente dicho, es decir, de la existencia no un conjunto fragmentado de esfuerzos, muchas veces inconexos, sino de un conjunto organizado y sistemático de procesos y procedimientos, formalmente institucionalizados, con cobertura general sobre el sector público (al menos a nivel del Gobierno Nacional), de obligatorio cumplimiento, con un ente rector o unidad coordinadora que establece estándares y metodologías y regula las relaciones con instancias técnicas en las diferentes dependencias públicas en materia de M&E, que se trata de complementar armónicamente con los otros sistemas administrativos y de información existentes que determinan los incentivos y parámetros esenciales del comportamiento de la burocracia pública.

En efecto, actualmente en el Perú, a nivel del Poder Ejecutivo del Gobierno Nacional (y con mucha menor penetración en los otros niveles de gobierno -regional y local- que conforman la estructura organizativa del Estado, en el marco de una democracia representativa con separación de poderes -Legislativo, Judicial y Ejecutivo-), existe un SME en formación, denominado Sistema de Seguimiento y Evaluación del Gasto Público (SSEGP).

Lamentablemente durante los años 2005 y 2006 en que debía, según el diseño, implementarse progresivamente este SME, tanto a nivel de su cobertura institucional como de la gama de instrumentos de M&E que aplicaría, su desarrollo fue volátil y muy escaso.

Recién este año 2007, con la iniciativa sobre Presupuesto por Resultados (PxR) contenida expresamente en la Ley de Presupuesto del Sector Público para el Año Fiscal 2007, se le ha dado un nuevo y renovado énfasis a los procesos sistemáticos de M&E, los mismos que integrados orgánicamente a través del SSEGP debiera a nuestro juicio convertirse progresivamente en el sistema que brinde la evidencia técnica sobre el desempeño financiero y no financiero de la acción pública que complemente de manera fundamental los elementos de juicio que las autoridades políticas tienen en cuenta en los procesos de toma de decisiones gubernamentales, en particular, en materia de asignación de recursos públicos.

El escaso nivel de desarrollo actual del SME, se evidencia en el reducido impacto que ha tenido en transformar la naturaleza inercial del proceso presupuestario peruano, así como en el bajo nivel de cumplimiento efectivo de las orientaciones funcionales que todo SME debiera cumplir en materia de su vinculación con los procesos de: (i) planificación estratégica nacional; (ii) planificación sectorial y programática; (iii) presupuesto y asignación del gasto; (iv) aprendizaje y mejora de la gestión; y (v) gobernanza y rendición de cuentas.

Esta opinión es también compartida por los distintos actores pertenecientes al sector público y no público entrevistados (a partir de un cuestionario referencial derivado del Protocolo para un Estudio Comparado sobre Sistemas de Evaluación y Monitoreo en el Sector Público en América Latina preparado por el BM y el CLAD) durante el presente Estudio. Al respecto, cabe mencionar que además de la revisión bibliográfica, se efectuaron entrevistas a funcionarios de diversas instituciones, las cuales por fines de exposición y análisis (dados sus distintos roles y funciones) fueron agrupados en dos sectores con tres subsectores cada uno: (i) Sector No Público: Sub sector Firma, Sub sector ONG’s y Sub sector Academia; y (ii) Sector Público: Sub sector Rector, Sub sector Contralor y Sub sector Ejecutor.

El nivel bajo en promedio de existencia de declaraciones formales y oficiales en materia de los cinco propósitos antes señalados y de acciones concretas que se estén llevando a cabo para avanzar en esas direcciones, es también consistente con el grado de institucionalización que exhibe el SME.

De hecho, si analizamos las distintas dimensiones y sus componentes que podrían conformar un índice de institucionalización, en una escala del 0 al 3, segmentando 4 grados: nulo, bajo, medio y alto nivel de institucionalización, tendriamos que hoy en día en el Perú, evaluando: (i) el uso y demanda de información sobre desempeño; (ii) la cobertura, calidad, oportunidad y credibilidad de la oferta de información; (iii) el anclaje institucional y la sostenibilidad de las acciones de M&E y (iv) la arquitectura del SME y sus vinculaciones con los otros sistemas de información y gestión; el nivel de institucionalización es bajo (1,3 de 3,0).

Esta situación hace indispensable que los entes rectores de los sistemas de planificación y presupuestación gubernamental, inviertan sus mayores esfuerzos por consolidar a la brevedad (retomando los diseños originales del SSEGP y perfeccionándolos) el SME que constituye un eje central del proceso de construcción de un Presupuesto por Resultados.

This working paper critically appraises the modality/process/mechanism of the government budget formulation, enactment, implementation and monitoring & auditing in Sri Lanka. It tends to address the following questions: (i) What is a government budget? (ii) What are the laws governing the budget (national, provincial & local)? (iii) How is it prepared, enacted, implemented, and monitored & audited? (iv) What are the best practices in budget formulation, enactment, implementation and monitoring & auditing internationally? (v) How can the government improve the accountability and transparency of the budget? (vi) What could be done to improve the technical capacity of people’s representatives in parliament to effectively and efficiently contribute to budget debates?

There is scarcely any aspect of government activity that does not involve the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The EU has supported the building of digital infrastructures and the sharing of best practices on efficient delivery of e-government services for the last 15 years. One of the goals of the EU Digital Action Plan was to increase the take-up of e-government services by 50% of citizens and 80% of businesses by 2015.

The introduction of digitalised procedures also affects the budgetary field. Scholars address ICT applications used for budgetary functions, procedures, or services across the budgetary cycle (planning, programming, budgeting, appropriations, control, and evaluation of financial resources), using the term 'e-budgeting'.

e-budgeting refers to the digitalisation of budgetary procedures, the diffusion of Open Data (i.e. the diffusion of budgetary information to the public in an open format) and Big Data (i.e. the use of complex databases of budgetary information to inform policy-making).

One of the most distinctive features of e-budgeting (and e-government in general) is that it promotes an active role for citizens and civil society organisations. A diffuse movement of activists and civil society organisations champions the use of digital technologies within public decision-making procedures to enhance citizens' participation and to control governmental activities.

This Impact Report identifies and summarises the diverse impacts, resulting from the £500m of UK funding of Science and Technology in 2013, using numerous quantitative metrics and short case study extracts.  It shows how the varied impacts of a national science and technology organization and its many funded programmes can be annually identified, captured, tracked, and summarised in a public document.

The report was produced for, and by, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) -  the UK Research Council responsible for funding: (1) all UK astronomy, particle and nuclear physics research, (2) related UK science and technology facilities (e.g. as Harwell and Daresbury), (3) the UK contribution to international science (e.g. CERN, international telescopes and space missions), (4) innovation and business spin-off programmes, and (5) UK public engagement activities.

The Report was co-researched and co-authored by the STFC Impact Team, including myself while Impact Evaluation Manager in 2013, with Dr. Claire Dougan-McCallie (lead author/Head of Impact) and Jenny Beard, with additional input from senior managers, and many data and case study contributions from other key managers across STFC.

Varied key impacts are identified and reported including:

• Research amongst the best (by citation impact) in astronomy, nuclear and particle physics.
• Supported research of 226 Principal Investigators in 70 universities, led to 1,100 peer-reviewed papers in 2012.
• Facilities (the Diamond Light Source, ISIS and CLF) were used in 2012/13 by over 4,200 unique users , in over 2,400 experiments, producing over 1,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

• Technology from CERN benefited the UK economy by over £100 billion every year.
• Funding the development of the UK’s space, internet and computer animation industries, returned over £500 billion to the UK economy per annum.
• Funded Innovation Campuses hosted over 230 enterprises and supported over 5,000 jobs.
• UK industry won £43 million in contracts from the international subscriptions funded, and had accumulated a total of £150 million since 2005.

• Funded research inspired future generations to study STEM subjects, attracting 90% of UK undergraduates to study physics, funded 782 PhD students  and 16,800 student training days.
• Between 2009 to 2012 public engagement programmes engaged people on 58 million occasions, with 2 million people engaged in face-to-face activities in 2013 alone.

En tant qu'outil, le C-PEM permet l'analyse du budget de l'Etat (BE), global ou partiel, en phase de programmation ou post-exécution, dans le but de mesurer les dépenses destinées/sensibles aux enfants et les désagréger par des dimensions telles que les droits de l'enfant, les groupes d'âge et le sexe.

Improving municipal service delivery and getting communities involved in municipal planning processes by way of participatory budgeting (PB), in particular in the integrated development plan (IDP) and the annual budgeting process, form the basis of this study. The study focuses, in general, on the service delivery challenges of local government, and specifically in the City of Ekurhuleni (COE). The empirical analysis of the research consists of the lived experiences of people living in the COE.
The dual guiding research question that is addressed focuses on how service delivery challenges can be addressed through PB in the COE by using phenomenology to provide insights to the lived experiences of community members.
This qualitative study follows a qualitative approach consisting of unobtrusive methods and an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) in terms of an inductive logical process that guided the data collection, analysis and the interpretation thereof.  The basis of the primary data entailed the outcomes of 20 semi-structured personal interviews with a homogeneous group of people who find themselves at the lower economic-strata within the COE.  The researcher followed the data analysis process as proposed by IPA in order to co-produce with participants’ deeper meanings and interpretations of their lived experience concerning their poor or no service delivery from the COE.  The search for deeper meaning from the obtained rich data enabled the researcher to extrapolate themes that led to the development of subordinate themes and consequently, a third level of interpretation in terms of superordinate themes.  The five developed superordinate themes were then applied to the theoretical framework to shed greater light to the nomothetic research. 
This study provided recommendations for improved service delivery mechanisms whereby the COE, with the involvement of its citizenry can contribute to PB. This means that the city will have to review all its organisational processes, policies and practices to involve communities to reduce the number of service delivery protests, since people will only participate to the extent that they believe that they are taken serious.

This is the abstract of the doctoral thesis titled "An Analysis of Budgets in India: Redefining the Fiscal Deficit of the Public Sector; 1980-2016" submitted to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. The thesis is focussing on the question- are we dealing with the correct fiscal data in India? The central idea discussed in the thesis is a call for fiscal transparency, inclusiveness and broadness in measuring fiscal imbalances to better explain the fiscal stance of the government and its impact on the economy. The thesis was completed under the guidance of Prof.Arun Kumar (former Sukhamoy Chakravarty Chair Professor, CESP, JNU; currently Malcolm S Adiseshiah Chair Professor, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi) and Prof.Shakti Kumar (Chairperson, CESP, JNU). The thesis was successfully defended and awarded on 19th May, 2021.

Një partneritet publiko-privat (PPP) është një kontratë midis qeverisë (përfaqësuar nga institucione të autorizuara me praninë e Ministrisë së Financave) dhe një kompanie private sipas të cilës:
-Një kompani private financon, ndërton dhe operon një/disa zëra të shërbimeve publike; dhe
-Kompania private paguhet gjatë disa viteve, qoftë përmes pagesave të paguara nga përdoruesit, ose me pagesë nga autoriteti publik me të cilin ka firmosur kontratën, ose duke i kombinuar të dyja format.

Në rastin e parë, buxheti paguan indirekt nëpërmjet konsumatorit, i cili ul bazën e tatueshme për aq lekë sa është pagesa e shërbimit nga dhënësi i tij;
Në rastin e dytë është një pagesë direkt nga buxheti, por e shtyrë në vite duke e ndarë pagesën në pjesë. Koncepti i PPP-ve ka një historik prej jo më shumë se 3 dekada, ndërsa koncesionet kanë ekzistuar për shumë shekuj.

Parimi i koncesioneve ishte se kompania private binte dakord të investonte paratë e veta në këmbim të të cilave shteti i garantonte kompanisë koncesionare një monopol për furnizimin e atij shërbimi në zonën e mbuluar.