Dr Joachim Wehner

This course is available on the Double Master of Public Administration (LSE-Columbia), Double Master of Public Administration (LSE-Sciences Po), Double Master of Public Administration (LSE-University of Toronto), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Columbia), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Hertie), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and NUS), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Sciences Po), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Tokyo), MSc in Political Science and Political Economy, MSc in Public Policy and Administration, Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Policy. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course examines contemporary issues in fiscal governance and public budgeting in OECD countries and elsewhere.  The focus is on executive and legislative actors and the institutional structures within which they make budgetary choices.  Following an introduction to theoretical approaches to the study of budgeting, topics include medium-term frameworks, top-down budgeting, fiscal rules and fiscal councils, performance budgeting, legislative budgeting, fiscal decentralisation, budget transparency, audit and accountability.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars totalling a minimum of 30 hours across Michaelmas Term. This year teaching will be delivered through a combination of online lectures, with seminars taking place in person where possible and where conditions allow.

Students are expected to produce one formative essay in Michaelmas Term as practice for the take-home assessment.

• Alesina, A, C Favero and F Giavazzi (2019). Austerity: When It Works and When It Does Not (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press).
• Blyth, M (2013). Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford, Oxford University Press).
• Hallerberg, M, R Strauch, and J von Hagen, (2009). Fiscal Governance in Europe (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)
• Allen, R, R Hemming, and B Potter, eds (2013). The International Handbook of Public Financial Management (New York, NY, Palgrave Macmillan)
• Cangiano, M, T Curristine, and M Lazare, eds (2013). Public Financial Management and Its Emerging Architecture (Washington DC, International Monetary Fund).

Coursework (25%) in the MT.
Take-home assessment (75%) in the LT.

The coursework (worth 25%) will consist of a Policy Exercise where students will prepare and deliver a presentation which will be carried out in groups. 

The take-home timed assessment (75%) will be held shortly before the start of Lent Term.