Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2013
DOI
10.1111/j.1540-5850.2013.12003.x
Publication Title
Public Budgeting and Finance
Volume
33
Issue
1
Pages
95-113
Abstract
Popular financial reports are reports distributed to citizens and other interested parties who lack a background in formal government financial reporting but who desire an overview of the government’s financial status and activities. This paper examines the current state of local government popular financial reporting in the U.S. The results of a survey of large cities and counties indicate that 75 percent of these local governments have issued popular financial reports and that the types of reports and methods of distribution vary. Many of the reasons for providing popular reports relate to providing information and improving transparency and accountability by providing more user friendly financial reports. This paper concludes with a discussion on popular financial reporting in the context of government transparency and accountability, and offers a research agenda for continued study of the topic.
ORCID
0000-0003-3599-1417 (Yusuf)
Repository Citation
Yusuf, Juita-Elena (Wie); Jordan, Meagan M.; Neill, Katharine A.; and Hackbart, Merl, "For the People: Popular Financial Reporting Practices of Local Governments" (2013). School of Public Service Faculty Publications. 5.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/publicservice_pubs/5
Comments
NOTE: This is the author’s final version (post-print) of a work that was published in Public Budgeting and Finance. The final version was published as:
Yusuf, J.-E.W., Jordan, M.M., Neill, K.A., & Hackbart, M. (2013). For the people: Popular financial reporting practices of local governments. Public Budgeting and Finance, 33(1), 95-113. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5850.2013.12003.x
The final publication is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5850.2013.12003.x