John F. Sacco

An 'Austrian' Perspective on Commercial Accounting Practices in the Public Sector

Using an ‘Austrian’ economic framework, rather than the traditional neoclassical economic or progressivism framework, this paper explores the extent to which accrual based accounting measurement systems add to or detract from value relevant accounting information, in public sector settings. Austrian economics provides insights to this issue by offering a more nuanced theoretical account of the role of knowledge, institutions and subjectivism in analyzing economic phenomena, than do traditional neoclassical economics or progressivism. The paper concludes that Austrian economics are a potential framework that informs us about the problem of misuse of information in public, noncompetitive situations.

Public sector investment failures: theoretical contributions from new institutional and austrian economic theory

This paper illustrates how two contemporary economic traditions - New Institutional and Austrian economics - may be used to add insight into the organization and governance of public sector investment programs. When combined, these frameworks offer a theoretical foundation that may be used for purposes of assessing relative levels of agency and transactions costs within different institutional settings. The insights provided suggest that one option for reducing these costs is to “outsource” the public sector investment function. The theories explored in the paper are not panacea for dealing with agency and transaction costs, but they do draw attention to key institutional characteristics that influence their size.

City responses to economic downturns 2003 to 2009: Statistical and textual analyses of comprehensive annual financial reports

This paper analyzes the impact of economic downturns on the revenue and expense sides of city financing for the period 2003 to 2009 using a convenience sample of the audited end of year financial reports for thirty midsized US cities. The analysis focuses on whether and how quickly and how extensively revenue and spending directions from past years are altered by recessions. A seven year series of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) data serves to explore whether citiesʼ revenues and spending, especially the traditional property tax and core functions such as public safety and infrastructure withstood the brief 2001 and the persistent 2007 recessions? The findings point to consumption (spending) over stability (revenue minus expense) for the recession of 2007, particularly in 2008 and 2009.

A Contemporary Perspective on Public Sector Venture Capitalism

The introduction of endogenous growth theory has led to new interest in the role of the entrepreneur as an agent driving technical change at the local regional level. This book examines theoretical and methodological issues surrounding the interface of the entrepreneur in regional growth dynamics on the one hand and on the other presents illuminating case studies. In total the book’s contributions amplify understanding of such critical issues as the relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship, the entrepreneur’s role in transforming knowledge into something economically useful, and knowledge commercialization with both conceptual and empirical contributions.

Governmental accounting, global markets and ideologies: A historical study of state and local practices in the united states

This paper examines the interaction between changes in governmental accounting, ideology and global capital markets. Based on a historical analysis from the late 1800s to the turn of the 21st century it provides support for the general hypothesis that the strength and support of global capital markets and pro-market ideologies is positively related to the likelihood of the adoption by governments of accounting methods geared toward exposing full costs and total debt. The analysis also illustrates that governments are more likely to use accounting methods that allow for greater flexibility for spending, borrowing and off balance sheet financing during times when global capital markets and pro-market ideologies are in decline.

Implementing microcomputers in local government: a case study of a loosely structured approach

Microcomputers and microcomputer technology offer ample opportunity for improving the productivity, decision making, and work quality of government. However, if they are not adequately implemented, the opportunities are lost and resources wasted. One purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of a loosely structured implementation approach on various criteria of microcomputer success, including redundancy, opportunism, decision quality, and work quality. Another purpose is to determine whether the loosely structured approach is just a stage in a development toward a more structured strategy, or alternatively, whether the loosely structured technique is an enduring, workable method of implementation. Loosely structured connotes an approach that has both openness and rules, but favors individual choice over formal organizational rules and structure. The loosely structured approach is important to probe because it may be a default choice. It may be used because of lack of knowledge about traditional, formal methods of computer implementation. It may also be a forced, cost containment choice that relies mostly on endusers, supplemented by some professional systems analysis assistance. The research to investigate these issues is a longitudinal case study of a budget office in a large local government that started with a loosely structured style. The period covered included the years 1985 to 1992 with interviews taking place in 1988, 1990 and 1992. Theoretical premises were drawn from organizational work on loosely coupled systems and evolutionary models of implementing information technology. The findings show that the loosely structured approach initially encouraged and bred opportunism, that is, innovative and useful application of microcomputers by a few, but low or routine use by many. The loosely structured approach gradually gave some ground to a more traditional systems strategy. This entailed assistance from professional information management specialists on more complex connectivity applications and development tasks, as well as planned systems analysis by the budget staff itself. These efforts yielded better data exchanges plus office wide network applications. However, a linear evolution from loosely structured to planned control did not occur, rather, the two intermingled and existed side by side. Overall, the loosely structured approach benefitted the work of the office, but its functionality also derived from the highly professional nature of the staff and the influx of new staff with greater computer knowledge. Continued work is needed to compare different implementation approaches and different work environments in order to advance the implementation of microcomputers and the associated technology, especially as the microcomputer positions itself to become an integral part of organizational information technology in government.