Mariafrancesca Sicilia is Associate Professor of Public Sector Accounting and Management at the University of Bergamo, Italy. She has published extensively on public sector accounting, accountability, performance measurement and management and co-production of public services. Ileana Steccolini is Full Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex, UK. She is the Co-editor of Financial Accountability and Management and the Chair and Founder of the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM) Public Service Accounting and Accountability Group. She has published extensively on public sector accounting, accountability, performance measurement and governmental financial resilience.

• Introduction: Public budgeting in search for an identity: state of the art and future challengesMariafrancesca Sicilia and Ileana Steccolini1. Insights into performance-based budgeting in the public sector: a literature review and a research agendaSara Giovanna Mauro, Lino Cinquini and Giuseppe Grossi2. Linking budgeting to results? Evidence about performance budgets in European municipalities based on a comparative analytical modelPieter Bleyen, Daniel Klimovský, Geert Bouckaert and Christoph Reichard3. The design of performance budgeting processes and managerial accountability relationshipsSuresh Cuganesan4. Balancing budget control and flexibility: the central finance agency as ‘responsive regulator’Michael Di Francesco and John Alford5. Fiscal slack, budget shocks, and performance in public organizations: evidence from public schoolsAbhisekh Ghosh Moulick and Lori L. Taylor6. Democracy, governmentality and transparency: participatory budgeting in actionMaria Isabel Brun-Martos and Irvine Lapsley7. Budgeting and the construction of entities: struggles to negotiate change in Swedish municipalitiesNiklas Wällstedt and Roland Almqvist

Mariafrancesca Sicilia is Associate Professor of Public Sector Accounting and Management at the University of Bergamo, Italy. She has published extensively on public sector accounting, accountability, performance measurement and management and co-production of public services. Ileana Steccolini is Full Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex, UK. She is the Co-editor of Financial Accountability and Management and the Chair and Founder of the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM) Public Service Accounting and Accountability Group. She has published extensively on public sector accounting, accountability, performance measurement and governmental financial resilience.

• Introduction: Public budgeting in search for an identity: state of the art and future challengesMariafrancesca Sicilia and Ileana Steccolini1. Insights into performance-based budgeting in the public sector: a literature review and a research agendaSara Giovanna Mauro, Lino Cinquini and Giuseppe Grossi2. Linking budgeting to results? Evidence about performance budgets in European municipalities based on a comparative analytical modelPieter Bleyen, Daniel Klimovský, Geert Bouckaert and Christoph Reichard3. The design of performance budgeting processes and managerial accountability relationshipsSuresh Cuganesan4. Balancing budget control and flexibility: the central finance agency as ‘responsive regulator’Michael Di Francesco and John Alford5. Fiscal slack, budget shocks, and performance in public organizations: evidence from public schoolsAbhisekh Ghosh Moulick and Lori L. Taylor6. Democracy, governmentality and transparency: participatory budgeting in actionMaria Isabel Brun-Martos and Irvine Lapsley7. Budgeting and the construction of entities: struggles to negotiate change in Swedish municipalitiesNiklas Wällstedt and Roland Almqvist