- Lucie Sedmihradska, Lecturer, Department of Public Finance, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic E-mail:[email protected]

- Juraj Nemec, Professor of Public Finance and Management, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic and Matej Bel University Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, E-mail:[email protected]

- Aleksander Aristovnik, Professor of Economics and Management in Administration, Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, E-mail: [email protected]

The aim of the working group is to deliver the research in the area of public finance and public financial management undertaken in the NISPAcee region and to support publication of original research on the topic. In addition, it also helps to develop research-led policy recommendations on current questions of public finance and public finance management from different aspects at local, national and international level in the region.
Public finance plays a vital role in providing essential services and public goods. The effective use of existing resources is critical to creating an enabling environment at all levels for sustainable development which includes, for example, promoting sound economic, social and environmental policies; enhancing transparency and participation in the budgeting process; ensuring fairness, efficiency and effectiveness of tax systems; combating corruption and enhancing transparency and accountability of the corporate sector and public administration; strengthening national oversight mechanisms; supporting national and regional development banks; strengthening the technical, financing and technological capacity of municipalities and other local authorities, amongst other areas.
In this respect the WG deals with the allocation and financial management of existing resources, which includes both microeconomic and macroeconomic dimensions and whose effectiveness is critical for the creation of an enabling environment at all levels for sustainable development.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequently adopted measures hit every aspect of human lives worldwide. Governments at all levels had to cope immediately with this very new situation, adopting a variety of measures with fiscal impact. While the classic public finance textbooks define clearly the three fiscal functions – allocation, stabilisation and redistribution – we experienced many measures claiming to aim at one function with severe impacts on others, which were often not evaluated or taken into account in advance.
While there are emerging papers on the economic and fiscal impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the uniqueness of the experience calls for much more research of both the micro and macroeconomic aspects of it and the evaluation of adopted government measures.
In order to address this challenge, the WG announces these topics for the 2021 annual conference:
1) Government responses to the Covid-19 pandemic and their evaluation in the NISPAcee region, including all fiscal functions, all government levels and also the relations between those government levels.
2) Public finance for sustainable development in the post Covid-19 pandemic time, which includes among others promoting sound economic, social and environmental policies; ensuring fairness, efficiency and effectiveness of tax systems; strengthening national oversight mechanisms or building the technical, financial and technological capacity of public authorities.
The aim of the working group is to build a network of scholars active in the area of public finance and public financial management and to support publication of original research undertaken in the NISPAcee region, including special assistance of the WG coordinators to young scholars with limited research and publishing experience. The expected outcome is a special journal issue on government responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in the NISPAcee region and publication of outstanding papers on public finance for sustainable development in the NISPAcee Journal.
The authors are invited to submit original research papers, i.e. papers presenting the results of their own research. We especially welcome empirical papers providing concrete data and their analysis. The form of the papers is quite open, e.g. single or multiple case studies, comparative papers, survey results or papers applying some statistical analysis.
Requirements for paper submission
Structure of the proposed abstract:
• The objective or the research question(s),
• Data and methodology,
• Expected findings.
The standard structure of the paper:
• Introduction, which clearly states the objectives of the paper,
• Description of the problem studied, showing a good knowledge of the relevant literature in both the local language and in English,
• Short introduction of the country or countries, i.e. present all information necessary (and relevant) to understand your paper,
• Data and methodology described in detail,
• Analysis of the problem,
• Evaluation and policy implications,
• Conclusions and recommendations (this part must result from the previous parts of the paper).