Governmental financial resilience – a European perspective

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Korac, S., Saliterer, I., Barbera, C., Dom, B.K. ORCID: 0000-0002-0889-2571, Du Boys, C., Jones, M. ORCID: 0000-0002-0802-6470 and Steccolini, I., 2021. Governmental financial resilience – a European perspective. In: PICPA Not-for-Profit and Government Accounting Conference Webcast, Pennsylvania, USA, 12-13 July 2021.

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Abstract

During crises and austerity, governments are prompted to reset priorities, cut back expenditures, and restructure service delivery strategies in order to deliver services in a stable, uninterrupted manner, meeting their citizens’ demands.

Even though academic interest in decline and cutback management seemed to have peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, governmental responses to the global financial crisis have led to a resurgence of "old-fashioned“ cutback and austerity measures and also the respective rhetoric at the national levels.

While this has led to an impressive accumulation of contextual knowledge on fiscal and organizational response strategies, there have also been warning calls that the focus on decline and cutback management may cause scholars to miss an important opportunity (Bozeman 2010) for adopting a longitudinal and strategic view on the whole life cycle of public organizations, one that emphasizes the role of internal capacities and looks at the interplay of different dimensions beyond fiscal responses.

In our first empirical studies on governmental financial resilience, we explored how local governments in Italy, England and Austria were facing the consequences of the global financial crisis. The findings have been published in a practitioner report for England and as a scholarly article in one of the leading academic journals in the field.

Colleagues from 11 countries worldwide (Australia, Austria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, US, Brazil) joined to study the cases of 45 local governments.

Conducted in a multiple case study design including interviews and an extensive analysis of archival data, these studies have contributed substantially to further defining and better understanding the dimensions of governmental financial resilience.

Item Type:

Conference contribution

Creators:

Korac, S., Saliterer, I., Barbera, C., Dom, B.K., Du Boys, C., Jones, M. and Steccolini, I.

Date:

July 2021

Identifiers: