Odd J. Stalebrink

Congressional Use of the Program Assessment Rating Tool

This paper seeks to advance knowledge about congressional use of the program assessment rating tool (PART) in the 109th Congress. The research suggest that both congressional chambers use PART on a limited basis; affirms that congressional committees are exposed to PART scores through congressional budget justification score inclusion and in federal agency testimony; and that use was primarily driven by non-congressional actors.

Public Pension Funds and Assumed Rates of Return An Empirical Examination of Public Sector Defined Benefit Pension Plans

This research adds to an existing body of research that suggests that the adoption of investment return assumptions associated with public sector defined benefit (DB) pension plans may partly be explained by political opportunism. This research adds to this literature by examining how oversight and monitoring efforts and investment boards’ relative independence from the political process influence adopted investment return assumptions. Based on a multivariate regression analysis of data on 88 state DB pension plans in the United States, the results of this study suggest that adopted investment return assumptions are partly determined by investment boards’ affiliation with the political process. The results also indicate that the adopted assumptions are influenced by asset allocations and the fiscal condition of pension plans. The findings of the study are important in part because they draw attention to possible linkages between the quality of financial information that is reported about the financial condition of public pension funds and their surrounding governance structure. Reliable information about the actual size of unfunded pension liabilities is critical in political environments, where there tend to be a bias toward shifting pension obligations to future constituents.

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.

Remaking transportation organizations for the 21st century: consortia and the value of organizational learning

The US faces a number of important issues in the way it organizes and manages transportation facilities and services. A key issue is how to create organizations that pay attention to customers and focus on results and performance. However, these two organizational characteristics are often difficult to achieve in formal organizations like governments, which are bound by requirements for procedural integrity. This paper examines a way out of this dilemma: transportation organizations can participate in voluntary consortia, which may offer more flexibility and adaptability and facilitate organizational learning. To gain new insights into the potential benefits of voluntary consortia this paper examines two case studies of transportation-related voluntary consortia, taking an organizational learning perspective. It concludes that although further research is needed, consortia may offer many benefits, including their ability to provide a quick, low-threat response to changing conditions.

National Performance Mandates and Intergovernmental Collaboration An Examination of the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART)

This exploratory research is aimed at offering insights into how intergovernmental dependencies influence Program Assessment Rating Tools (PART) ratings under circumstances when federal funds and responsibility are delegated downward in the system. The research offers formal support for the hypothesis that programs carried out under such circumstances score relatively lower on those portions of the PART instrument that are dependent on intergovernmental collaboration. The findings are important in that they draw attention to an opportunity to improve the consistency of PART ratings across programs. Specifically, they suggest that it may be necessary to revise the instrument to include questions that recognizes and gives credit to efforts of intergovernmental collaborative efforts as part of the PART scoring process.

Public Values, Public Official Associations, and Professionalism: A Cross-National Analysis

This article explores the role of public official associations (POAs) in the articulation of public values, the development of policy, and the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the effective management of the public interest. The research is comparative and includes examinations of POAs in the United States, Sweden, and India. The examination of these cases suggests that POAs play a significant role in governance, albeit one defined by the structure and history of any particular system. As organizations that are “of the state, but not in the state,” they serve important roles in mediating between center and periphery, between political and administrative perspectives on policy, and help integrate professional and public service values. The exploration also indicates that POAs are important in forming elements of networks on important policy issues and that they are frequent sources of innovation, such as general revenue sharing in the United States and fiscal reform in Sweden.

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.

Transportation Asset Management: The Value of Enterprise-Based Financial Reporting

The adoption of enterprise-based financial reporting practices in the public transportation infrastructure has the potential to facilitate the use of profitability analysis and, thus, the management of public transportation infrastructure assets. However, a major challenge for successful implementation is the ability to generate in a public setting what the Governmental Accounting Standards Board refers to as “satisfactory” system input values. Because market prices are not generated in these environments, they must be simulated. Two promising approaches for generating such measurements are reviewed: benefit-cost analysis and econometric studies of the productivity impacts of infrastructure investments (on productivity studies). Although the two approaches are subject to several weaknesses that inhibit them from generating satisfactory system input values, ongoing methodological advances in both indicate fair prospects for generating such values in the future. Therefore, a dismissal of enterprise financial reporting practices for public transportation infrastructure may be premature.

Public Pension Funds and Alternative Investments: A Tale of Four Swedish National Pension Funds

ABSTRACT This exploratory study offers insights into why public pension plans might invest in alternative asset classes at levels inconsistent with modern portfolio theory. Using a case study methodology, the research relies on fieldwork data and in-depth interviews with individuals familiar with four Swedish national pension funds. The findings suggest that alternative assets are perceived as important vehicles for improving portfolio diversification, but that the funds’ propensity to invest in them is constrained by information asymmetry and access to alternatives. The findings also indicate that investment restrictions and political considerations have had limited effects on decisions to invest in alternative assets.

Transportation Asset Management

This chapter describes how transportation asset management (TAM) is an umbrella term used to describe a range of efforts aimed at systematically and cost- effectively maintaining, upgrading, and operating surface transportation infrastructure assets. TAM goes beyond the traditional engineering-oriented approach to managing these assets by introducing or expanding the role of economic theory and business-oriented practices in the delivery of transportation services. As such, TAM introduces a new set of tools and practices that seek to build and improve upon existing practices, rather tan to replace them. This chapter provides an overview of the state of the art of these practices and tools, and their development.