Forecasting Government Budgets: Methods and Applications

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.