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Italian Public Sector Accounting Reform: A Step Towards European Public Sector Accounting Harmonisation

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  • Mussari Riccardo
  • Sorrentino Daniela

    (Department of Business and Law Studies, School of Economics and Management, University of Siena, Piazza San Francesco, 7, 53100Siena, Italy)

Abstract

This paper discusses post-New Public Management (NPM) approaches to current patterns of public management reforms as a path-dependent phenomenon and as proposing corrective solutions to unintended shortcomings of NPM-inspired reforms. Public sector accounting reforms are seen as developing coherently with general public managerial reforms, and as showing a shift in the prioritised purposes assigned to public accounts in line with the overall design of projected reform-making. EU public sector accounting harmonisation is interpreted in this framework, and the Italian experience of public sector accounting reform is discussed in the light of EU membership. Particular emphasis is given to the likely overlap between national and government accounting due to increasingly shared purposes, whereby the former acquires a functional supportive role to the latter. Considerations on the drivers, as well as on the technical solutions of the new Italian public sector accounting system, suggest that Italian public sector accounting has taken a step in the direction of European public sector accounting harmonisation. Finally, the Italian case provides evidence of post-NPM-like accounting reform, contributing to the scanty empirical research on this topic.

Suggested Citation

  • Mussari Riccardo & Sorrentino Daniela, 2017. "Italian Public Sector Accounting Reform: A Step Towards European Public Sector Accounting Harmonisation," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 7(2), pages 137-153, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:aelcon:v:7:y:2017:i:2:p:137-153:n:2
    DOI: 10.1515/ael-2017-0006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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