Bottom-Up Costing Within Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks: A Survey of Practices in Selected OECD Countries

The public financial management literature stresses the importance of bottom-up costing of budget programs within a medium term expenditure framework (MTEF), however, comparatively little attention is paid to its practical implementation. This paper helps close this gap by surveying MTEF costing practices in four countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, and the Netherlands. The research utilizes questionnaire responses and interview data from national finance ministries, as well as review of government policy documents. The paper finds that current program costing practices fall short of the declared objectives of MTEFs, and the focus of costing and cost information remains incremental budget decision processes.