Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 25th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview V. Public Finance and Management Author(s) Yuri Krivorotko I do not belong to any Institution Minsk Belarus Andrei Blakhin, Sankt–Petersburg State Economic University Title Welfare Sector in Belarus: Whether its Reformation is Necessary File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Yuri Krivorotko Abstract Long time the Belarusian authorities characterized their national and subnational budgets as budgets of a welfare orientation. Every year before the republican budget's adoption on the next fiscal year the Belarusian parliament's deputies declared about its welfare priority. How consecutive a policy of official authorities in welfare orientation of the central and local budgets in practice was and what tendencies of social budgetary policy in the time of economic recession have taken place in Belarus. Replies to these questions in this paper will be given. The research methodology is based on approach to an assessment of authority’s fiscal efforts in welfare sphere branches development: health care, education, fitness, sport, culture, mass media and social protection in Belarus. The methodology approach provides use of elasticity coefficient in which correlation between expenditure on welfare sphere branches and total budget revenues exists. General practical grounds are based on analytical data obtained from official statistical sources, such as the State Statistics Committee, Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Belarus and on-line databases Belarus working in this area. Paper considers the welfare branches in the Belarus central budget and subnational ones, their structures, dynamics and other important indicators. A comparative analysis of welfare sector with other European countries is submitted. Paper opens inconsistent policy of the Belarusian authorities in welfare branches funding. Debatable issues of welfare sphere finance reformation in Belarus in time of an economic recession are considered. Key words: welfare sphere branches, national budget, local budgets, budget expenditures, public finance
