Myanmar Budget Dynamics and Their Effect on Multiple Performances of Public Service Delivery: A Multilevel Approach

Abstract

A public budget consists of financial input for implementing governmental operations. It is generally expected that financial resources will increase organizational performance because they can be used to obtain other types of resources. This study aims to make a theoretical contribution to the punctuated equilibrium theory literature by examining how the different patterns of budget changes affected the competing dimensions of public service performance (3Es: efficiency, effectiveness, and equity) before and after the Myanmar budget reform in 2011. We collected a two-level dataset including budget allocation data at the ministry level and public service providers’ perceptions of performance at the individual level and employed multilevel modeling. Our results show that the effectiveness of public services can be improved by increasing a significant amount of budget allocation (positive punctuations), but this has no effect on efficiency or equity. However, any level of budget reduction can decrease the efficiency and equity of public services.