The careful management of costs and operations are two of the most essential elements of operating any successful organization, public or private. While the private sector is driven by profit-maximizing incentives to keep costs to a minimum, the public sector's mission and goals are guided by a different set of objectives: to provide a wide range of essential goods and services to maintain social order, improve public health, revitalize the economy, and, most importantly, to improve the quality of life for its citizens. Although the objectives are different, it is just as important for public decision makers to make the best use of available resources by keeping the cost of operation to a minimum. This book demonstrates that with a careful emphasis on cost accounting, operations management, and quality control, all organizations and governments can increase efficiency, improve performance, and prepare to weather hard times. This book is divided into three parts: Part I offers thorough coverage of cost fundamentals, with an emphasis on basic cost concepts, cost behavior, cost analysis, cost accounting, and cost control. Part II examines optimization in costs and operations in government including traditional or classical optimization with applications in inventory management and queuing, followed by mathematical programming and network analysis. Finally, Part III explores special topics in cost and optimization, in particular those related to games and decisions, productivity measurement, and quality control. Simple, accessible language and explanations are integrated throughout, and examples have been drawn from government so that readers can easily relate to them. Cost and Optimization in Government is required reading for practicing public managers and students of public administration in need of a clear, concise guide to maximizing public resource efficiency.

Responding to a critical need in government for ways to manage costs better and improve productivity, The author gives practitioners and advanced students of public administration not just the statistical methods they require but also the hands-on skills they need and will use daily. His book introduces cost and management accounting, shows how to use decision-making tools in solid problem-solving situations, and lays out measures to help manage an organization's productivity. Also covered are such topics as cost estimation, benefit-cost analysis, simulation, inventory analysis, network modeling, mathematical programming, game theory, and more. The result is a readable and focused resource that facilitates the reader's grasp of two of the most critical elements in the successful operation of any organization: cost and optimization.

The book is organized in three parts. Part I deals with costs in government and emphasizes cost behavior, cost analysis, and cost accounting. Part II treats basic optimization techniques that are useful in cost management. Included are classical optimization, network analysis, mathematical programming, and games and decisions. In Part III the author deals with special cases in cost and optimization, particularly multivariate analysis, productivity management, and some related topics in general management. The book succeeds in presenting these complex issues clearly and in an accessible manner, and adds examples from public sector experience which will resonate with practitioners and students alike.

To have a clear picture of developments in public financial management, a multidimensional perspective of the field is needed, since governments--unlike for-profit organizations-- serve multiple and often conflicting interests. This book provides this dynamic approach by integrating insights from economics, business, and political science. Written by some of the leading scholars in the field, this collection presents eleven chapters that run the gamut of public financial management issues. Topics include: Transaction costs in contractual relationships; Uncertain conditions and probability assessment in the bond market; Rational choice and the institutional framework in public investment decision; E-Government financial management models; Budget balance as the building block of public financial strategy. Together the contributors present a robust framework for understanding and analyzing financial decision making in the public sector.

Dominated by multiple, competing, and occasionally overlapping theories, the act of budgeting is by no means a staid, dispiriting task. Kahn, Hildreth, and their group of scholars and practitioners show that budgeting is an institutional process, an incremental decision-making tool, and when correctly applied becomes a tribute to managerial and administrative efficiency. Taken together, the chapters provide an unusually coherent conceptual foundation for budgeting as a legitimate field of study, and demonstrate yet again that in its current state the field is truly eclectic but compartmentalized. They also show why it is so difficult to come up with one unified theory of budgeting--and that is one of the book's major benefits. It opens new areas of inquiry that, in the opinion of Khan, Hildreth, and others, will generate renewed interest in probing the field's theory and applications. Understandable and readable for those with limited knowledge of the subject but needing a sufficiently useful grasp of its various issues and problems, the book is both an important reference work for scholars in the field and a practical guide for students of administration, their teachers, and for managers throughout the public sector.

Revenue and expenditure forecasting plays an important role in public budgeting and financial management, particularly during times of financial constraint, when citizens impose greater accountability upon government to use taxpayer dollars more efficiently. Despite its significance, revenue and expenditure forecasting is often overlooked in the budget process, and there is an imbalance between practice and research in this area. Based on the collaboration of budget scholars and practitioners, Government Budget Forecasting fulfills two purposes- Enhances the understanding of revenue and expenditure estimation both theoretically and practically Stimulates dialogue and debate among practitioners and academicians to identify good forecast practices as well as areas for improvement

Divided into four parts, this comprehensive reference first examines forecast practices at the federal, state, and local levels, utilizing case studies that include California, Texas, and Louisiana. It then explores consensus systems and risk assessment, considering political factors and the costs of forecast errors. The text concludes with a call to transparency and guidance from a code of ethics, and a look at forecasting practices in emerging countries.

Demonstrates the ways in which cost accounting, operations management, and quality control can increase efficiency, improve performance, and prepare public organizations to weather hard times Simple, accessible language and explanations are integrated throughout, and examples have been drawn from government so that readers can readily relate to them. Assumes no prior subject knowledge and covers cost basics comprehensively, before moving on to optimization of costs and operations and special topics like network analysis, productivity measurement, and quality control. Can be used on a variety of public administration courses with a focus on efficiency, and is ideal reading for public managers looking for a deeper understanding of the efficiency tools available to them.

Budgeting is probably the single most important function in government, considering the amount of money a government spends each year on various expenditure programs and activities, as well as the time it spends in preparing the budget, appropriating funds for these activities and, finally, executing them. This book integrates the complex theory and practice of public budgeting into a single text. Written in a simple, concise and easy to understand manner, The Fundamentals of Public Budgeting and Finance captures the multidimensional perspective of public budgeting that students, as well as practitioners will find useful.

This book presents an in-depth look at US infrastructure and its challenges in the 21st century. While infrastructure has received considerable attention in recent years, much of the discussion has concentrated on physical, economic, or noneconomic conditions. The Trump administration has heightened interest in the topic, promising infrastructure spending during his tenure, yet little demonstrable progress has been made. This book brings together a multi-disciplinary perspective-structural, technological, economic, financial, political, planning, and policy-that has been largely absent in discussions on the subject, to provide a clearer and broader understanding of the challenges facing US infrastructure. The book is divided into three parts: Part I looks at the challenges from a structural, technological, and sustainability perspective; Part II from an economic, productivity, and finance perspective; and Part III from an institutional, security, and political perspective. Written primarily for policy makers, managers, and administrators in public and private organizations, as well as individuals and academics with an interest in the future of US infrastructure, this book provides an in-depth analysis of the US infrastructure problem, its causes and consequences, and suggests timely, specific measures that may be taken at the state, local, and federal levels to improve and better secure our roads, transit, public buildings, economy, and technology.

A budget is the nerve center of a government and forecasting is integral to budgeting. For a government to be able to carry out its everyday operations in a planned and organized manner, it has to have a sound knowledge of future revenues and expenditures, i.e., its budget. Forecasting provides that knowledge by producing estimates of revenues and expenditures, based on past and current information, to indicate whether the government will have sufficient revenue to effectively carry out its routine and non-routine operations. This notion of forecasting is more appropriate at the sub-national level, where the state and local governments are required by law to balance their budget, especially the operating budget. And without good and reliable forecasts, it will be difficult to determine the measures that will be necessary to balance the budget or ensure conformity between revenues and expenditures. Written in a simple and easy to understand manner, the book presents a number of well-established methods, simple as well as advanced, including some recent developments in budget forecasting. Although written primarily for graduate students in public administration and government practitioners, students from other disciplines will also find it useful.