WG5: Public Finance and Public Financial Management
WG coordinators:
- Lucie Sedmihradska, Lecturer, Department of Public Finance, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic E-mail:sedmih@vse.cz
Lucie Sedmihradska is a
Lecturer at the Department of Public Finance, University of Economics in
Prague. Aside from teaching she has been involved in several local and
international research projects focusing on public budgets, local
government finance and inter-municipal cooperation. She has published
approximately two dozen journal articles and book chapters. She has been
involved in NISPAcee since 2000, and since 2007 has been one of the
coordinators of the WG on Public Sector Finance and Accounting and the
WG on Fiscal Policy. She has also edited (co-edited) three books on
local government finance issues in transition countries which were the
outcome of the activities of the WG on Public Sector Finance and
Accounting.
- Juraj Nemec, Professor of Public Finance and Management, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic and Matej Bel University Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, E-mail:juraj.nemec@umb.sk
Juraj Nemec is a Professor at
Public Finance and Management, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic
and Matej Bel University Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
He holds an MBA in Business
Administration, a Ph.D. in Public Sector Economics and is a Professor of
Public Finance and Public Management, with more than 33 years’
experience in teaching in public sector management and procurement. He
has published over 400 books and scientific articles in this field and
held several academic posts, including the position of "Dean of the
Faculty of Finance". During his academic and professional career he has
gained immense experience in the political and administrative situation
in the European integration process and EU enlargement.
- Aleksander Aristovnik, Professor of Economics and Management in Administration, Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, E-mail: aleksander.aristovnik@fu.uni-lj.si
Aleksander Aristovnik is
employed at the Faculty of Public Administration (University of
Ljubljana) as an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and
Public Sector Management. In addition, he is an Associate Professor in
the Department of Economics at the Faculty of Economics (University of
Ljubljana). His areas of research interest encompass public sector
economics, public administration reform, public finance, public policy
evaluation, European integration and macroeconomics.Professionally and
scientifically, he has deepened his knowledge and skills at a number of
summer schools and workshops, as well as a visiting scholar hosted by
Princeton University, University of Nevada (Reno) (USA), University of
Dubai, Zayed University (UAE), University of Gent (BEL) and Chinese
Academy of Science (CHN). He has actively participated in around seventy
international conferences and has recently performed as a head of a few
international and domestic research projects financed by the Slovenian
Research Agency (SRA). He has also published and reviewed number of
scientific articles in domestic and international (SSCI-indexed)
journals. He is a member of editorial board of numerous scientific
monographs and international journals (e.g. Public policy and
administration, International journal of public policy, etc.), various
international conferences (NISPAcee, MakeLearn & TIIM, ICICTE, etc.)
and associations/organizations (e.g. EEA, INFER, ATINER, etc.) and is
frequently appointed as an external evaluator of scientific projects for
different European research agencies. He is also active outside
academia as a member of the Slovenian Officials' Council, as a managing
director of a think-thank Zavod 14 and as a professional expert of the
Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia.
Call for papers
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).