Allen Schick

Information overload: A temporal approach☆

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to provide a more precise definition of information overload than previously found in the literature. Such a definition is essential to designing usable information systems. Drawing upon work in organization theory, information overload is defined as occuring when the information processing demands on an individuals time to perform interactions and internal calculations exceed the supply or capacity of time available for such processing. Cited empirical evidence demonstrates the reasonableness of the proposed definition.

A Death in the Bureaucracy: The Demise of Federal PPB.

By these words, PPB became an unthing. No publicity or press release; only an erasure from the administrative record. The death notice was conveyed on June 21, 1971, in a memorandum accompanying Circular A-11, the Office of Management and Budgets (OMB) annual ritual for the preparation and submission of agency budget requests. No mention was made in the memo of the three initials which had dazzled the world of

Budgeting for Results: Recent Developments in Five Industrialized Countries

This article reports on recent developments in five countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The material is drawn from documentary sources and interviews in all of the countries except Australia.3 After describing each countrys approach, the article analyzes common themes and differences. The order in which country descriptions appear has been dictated by affinities in their approaches. The two Scandinavian countries comprise one group, the three Commonwealth countries another. In the latter, British activities are recounted first because they have strongly influenced Australian and Canadian innovations.

Government at risk :contingent liabilities and fiscal risk

Conventional fiscal analysis fails to address contingent fiscal risk. The government budget process and documentation generally fail to scrutinize the substantial claims on public resources that are associated with government contingent liabilities, realized and potential. This report fills gaps on our understanding of fiscal risks and develops suitable frameworks for managing them. It offers new analytical concepts, presents country case studies, and based on country case studies, provides a menu of practical ideas for policymakers and scholars to bring fiscal risk within the ambit of public finance. The book is divided into two parts: Part I of this book gives an overview of different approaches to dealing with government fiscal risks. The country examples in this part offer additional conceptual approaches and illustrate some of the discussion in the earlier chapters. Part II presents analytical and institutional approaches that governments might consider when facing risks in specific government programs or sectors. The book indicates that countries differ greatly in their treatment of contingent liabilities and other fiscal risks. In this respect, the book illustrates that contemporary practices have yet to be standardized.

From Analysis to Evaluation

During the 1960s, program innovation and social analysis bloomed concurrently. Especially during the mid-years of that decade, many new social enterprises were spurred by the confident analyses of social scientists. The 1970s, however, have ushered in a period of program evaluation and public retrospection. The emphasis no longer is on building a record of program initiatives or on projecting the cost-effectiveness of prospective federal policies, but on looking backward to measure what has been accomplished by means of the activities already undertaken. The difference between analysis and evaluation is tied to the policy-making context within which social science operates. The uses of analysis are most in demand when underutilized slack resources are available, when there is a great deal of confidence in the efficacy of public action, and when policy-makers want to forge new program initiatives. When these conditions change, the dominant tone of both social science and public policy shifts to evaluation. The drainage of resources, confidence, and the will to innovate thus account for the recent rise of evaluation.

Government at Risk

The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply on the part of the World Bank any judgment of the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. The material in this work is copyrighted. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or inclusion in any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the World Bank. The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint, please send a request with complete information to the Foreword In public finance, it no longer suffices for analysts and institutions to focus solely on budget revenues and expenditures. Recent history demonstrates that fiscal performance and, in turn, economic development can be seriously disrupted by the sudden, unexpected costs of hidden contingent liabilities and other unanticipated fiscal risks. During the second half of the 1990s, unreported contingent liabilities and related fiscal risks contributed to economic crises and disrupted growth in a number of developing countries, motivating stepped-up efforts at the World Bank to devise new concepts and tools for analyzing and managing public finance. With the aim of improving the analysis of fiscal risks and supporting policy advice in this area, the Economic Policy Unit of the Banks Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network established the Quality of Fiscal Adjustment Thematic Group. This book was produced as part of the effort by this Thematic Group to promote new thinking about public finance. We now know that conventional frameworks for fiscal analysis that concentrate on direct, explicit liabilities fail to address contingent fiscal risks. For example, fiscal sustainability analysis that focuses, as is typically the case, on the officially reported budget deficits fails to detect possible future increases in government debt and payments that may emerge from both explicit and implicit government guarantees on enterprise credit, state insurance schemes, exchange rate guarantees, and commitments to assist failed banks. Similarly, the government budget process and …

Perceptions of Resource Criticality in Times of Resource Scarcity: The Case of University Departments

In this article the authors discuss research they conducted that examined the relationship between the perceptions of respondents about the scarcity of support staff and faculty at universities and...

University Budgeting: Administrative Perspective, Budget Structure, and Budget Process

Budgeting in universities has been viewed most often from the perspective of the department or resource recipient. This paper adds the administrative perspective, the budget structure, and the openness of the budget process to the departmental perspective in order to develop a greater understanding of university budgeting. Several hypotheses about the relative use of objective criteria and political power in budgeting critical resources are proposed.

Fiscal Institutions versus Political Will

Numerous contemporary studies have found that fiscal institutions strongly influence budget outcomes, explaining why some countries maintain fiscal discipline while others do not.1 The studies do not agree on the factors that account for differences in budget results, but they do agree that rules matter. These findings have spurred international organizations and some national governments to seek new fiscal institutions to strengthen budget discipline and keep public finance on a sustainable course.

The Battle of the Budget

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