The Use of Performance Information Under Performance Budgeting Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Chilean Line Ministries

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June 14, 2018

Numerous studies suggest that performance budgeting has limited impact on budget aggregates and on legislative decision making. For that reason, a growing number of scholars now argue for increased attention on how performance budgeting reforms influence decision-making processes within line ministries and during budget execution. In this study, we compare the cases of four line ministries from a government with a longstanding tradition of performance budgeting. We find that the use of performance information is marginal during budget formulation and approval. In contrast, the evidence shows that officials at line ministries use performance information extensively during budget execution. The use of performance information differs between our four cases and those differences are explained by a set of variables that include executive leadership involvement, informational system capacity, and intrinsic organizational factors such as the size of the organizations and the homogeneity of their outputs.