Public Budgeting Classics, Financial Incentives for Open Government, and Accountability in Inter-Municipal Collaboration

This study pack brings together three peer-reviewed journal articles on core topics in public administration and local government finance. Irene Rubin's 2014 Public Administration Review essay reviews four classic budgeting articles (Lewis 1952, Wildavsky 1961, Schick 1966, Levine 1978) and proposes a research agenda for future budget classics in light of fiscal stress, partisanship, and changing program structures. Alcaide Muñoz, Rodríguez Bolívar and López Hernández (2016) present a meta-analysis of financial determinants of open-government disclosure, examining financial condition and inter-governmental transfers across hard-copy and online channels. Zachary Spicer (2017) develops a framework for measuring accountability and transparency in inter-municipal collaboration agreements, illustrated with Greater Toronto Area cases. Together the papers teach budgeting theory evolution, drivers of fiscal transparency, and the accountability challenges of shared local services.