Capacity Constraints and Public Financial Management in Small Pacific Island Countries

Haque, Tobias A. ; Knight, David S. ; Jayasuriya, Dinuk S.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO INFORMATION;    ACCOUNTABILITY FRAMEWORK;    ACCOUNTING;    ACCOUNTING STANDARDS;    AGGREGATE EXPENDITURE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6297
RP-ID  :  WPS6297

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Drawing on Public Expenditure andFinancial Accountability assessment scores from 118countries, this paper provides the first comparativeanalysis of public financial management performance in smallPacific Island Countries (PICs). It applies a Tobitregression model across the full cross-country sample ofPublic Expenditure and Financial Accountability scores andcountry variables to identify potential causes for theobserved underperformance of Pacific Island countriesrelative to other countries of similar income. First, theanalysis finds small population size to be negativelycorrelated with Public Expenditure and FinancialAccountability scores, with the "populationpenalty" faced by small Pacific Island countriessufficient to explain observed underperformance. Second,through application of a new capacity index of PublicExpenditure and Financial Accountability dimensions, itfinds strong evidence in support of the hypothesis thatsmall population size impacts scores through the impositionof capacity constraints: with a limited pool of humancapital, small countries face severe and permanentchallenges in accessing an adequate range and depth oftechnical skills to fulfill all functions assessed throughthe Public Expenditure and Financial Accountabilityframework. These findings suggest that approaches tostrengthening public financial management in small PacificIsland countries should involve: i) careful prioritizationof public financial management capacity toward areas thatrepresent binding constraints to development; ii) adoptionof public financial management systems that can functionwithin inherent and binding capacity constraints, ratherthan wholesale adoption of "best practice"imported systems; and iii) consideration of options foraccessing external capacity to support public financialmanagement systems on a long-term basis, from regionalagencies, the private sector, or donors.