Implementing the GPRA: Examining the Prospects for Performance Budgeting in the Federal Government |
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| Authors: | Robert M McNab Francois Melese |
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| Institution: | Robert M. McNab is an Assistant Professor, who received his B.A. from California State University, Stanislaus, in 1991 and his Ph.D. in economics in 2001 from Georgia State University in Atlanta. He previously served as Program Manager (1995–1996) and Research Associate (1996–2000) for the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. He has also served as a consultant on tax policy, tax administration, and revenue estimation and forecasting issues for the United States Agency for International Development and the World Bank. He has had scholarly articles accepted for publication by the National Tax Journal;, Public Budgeting &Finance, World Development, and the Journal of International Trade and Economic Development. His work has also appeared in the Handbook of Taxation and The Use of Economic and Mathematical Models of Tax Systems. His research interests include the outcomes of fiscal decentralization, the reform of budgeting and tax administration systems in developing and transitional countries, and the determinants of economic growth. Professor McNab joined the faculty of the Naval Postgraduate School in August of 2000. Francois Melese is Associate Professor of Economics at the Naval Postgraduate School, who received his B.A. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, his M.A. from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and his Ph.D. from the University of Louvain, Belgium. He was previously a Research Fellow at the Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociale (IRES), University of Louvain, Belgium, and Assistant Professor of Economics at Auburn University. He has published extensively on defense, energy, trade, and labor issues and most recently on incentive budgeting systems. |
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| Abstract: | The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) is the latest in a series of attempts to introduce performance-based management and budgeting techniques at the federal level in the United States. In the past, these attempts largely failed due to administrative complexities, lack of investment in managerial, accounting, and information systems, and the absence of institutional incentives to promote gains in economic efficiency. Whereas we find the objectives of the GPRA laudable, we question whether this current incarnation of performance budgeting can succeed in transforming the traditional focus of federal budgeting from annual appropriations and obligations to multiyear outputs and outcomes. |
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