Trends in Fiscal Transparency: Evidence from a New Database of the Coverage of Fiscal Reporting
IMF Working Papers, August 5, 2015
Source details
- Canonical URL
- Trends in Fiscal Transparency: Evidence from a New Database of the Coverage of Fiscal Reporting
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Rachel F Wang, Timothy C Irwin, Lewis K Murara
- Published: August 5, 2015
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513523965.001
Database and scope
- New database of fiscal transparency constructed from government finance statistics reported to the IMF.
- Coverage: 186 countries in 2003–13.
- Purpose: To provide information on issues not satisfactorily captured by other measures of fiscal transparency, including:
- Whether fiscal data are available for all of general government.
- Whether the government reports a balance sheet.
- Whether spending and revenue are reported on a cash or accrual basis.
Indices constructed
- Indices derived from the database:
- An index of the overall comprehensiveness of fiscal statistics.
- A specific index of the coverage of public institutions.
- A specific index of the coverage of fiscal flows.
- A specific index of the coverage of fiscal stocks.
Key findings
- Evidence of gradual improvement in fiscal reporting over the sample period.
- Most notable improvement observed in the coverage of institutions.
- Despite improvements, most countries’ reporting remains far from comprehensive.
Subject focus and keywords
- Subject areas: Economic and financial statistics; Financial institutions; Financial statements; Fiscal reporting; Fiscal transparency; Government finance statistics; Public financial management (PFM); Stocks.
- Keywords included in source: accounts, balance-sheet subtotal, budgetary central government, budgets, central government, correlation coefficient, country, Europe, Financial statements, fiscal reporting, fiscal transparency, General government, Global, government, government assets, government finance statistics, government Finance Statistics Manual, government operation, government statistics, government's account, local government, public finance, Stocks, WP.