Global Public Goods (and PFM?) ---- August International Institute of Public Finance Conference

The International Institute of Public Finance's 63rd annual congress, held Aug 27-30, 2007 in Warwick, UK, was themed “Global Public Goods and Commons: Theoretical and Policy Challenges for a Changing World.” A number of sessions at the conference focused on expenditure policy and management-related issues, including corruption and global public goods.

Globalization is having wide-ranging impacts, and global public goods and public commons have implications for national budgets. A sampling of a few papers presented reveals the linkages. For example, Pierre Pestieau (University of Liege) addressed “European Welfare States: Performances and Prospects,” exploring some competition and its implications for European welfare programs. Similarly, on the revenue side, Dr Birger Nerre of German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), spoke about “Tax Culture as a Basic Concept for Tax Policy Advice,” with relevance for developing tax reform plans. And Kai Konrad (Free University of Berlin) spoke about “Mobile Tax Base as a Global Common.” 

A favorite title paper award goes to Christian Bruns and Oliver Himmler (University of Goettingen) for  “It´s the Media, Stupid - How Media Activity Shapes Public Spending.”

Selected papers and the program can be found at www.iipf.org. Next years conference is planned on "Demography and Pensions" in Maastricht., and the 2009 conference is planned on expenditure issues and development in Cape Town, South Africa.

Posted by Davina Jacobs

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