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Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance pp 1–9Cite as

Accounting for Public Debt and Deficit

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Synonyms

Borrowing; General government debt; General government deficit; Governmental accounting (GA); Maastricht debt; National accounting (NA); State debt; State deficit

Definition(s)

A deficit is the difference between expenditures and incomes, that is, between spending (outflows) and revenues (inflows). Deficit is deemed to be the opposite of surplus, that is, a negative balance between the two flows.

Debt is the total outstanding borrowing of an entity. Debt can be internal (owed to public and private lenders within the country) and external (owed to foreign lenders). Debt is linked to both an overall redistributive purpose (welfare policies) and the monetary base management (monetary policies) (Biondi 2016a).

Deficit and debt figures are determined through governmental accounting and national accounting systems. Deficit and debt figures are affected by (1) the specific definition of deficit or debt used; (2) the criteria used to define the scope of the accounting/reporting...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paris-Dauphine, PSL Research University, Paris, France

    Marion Boisseau-Sierra

Authors
  1. Marion Boisseau-Sierra
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marion Boisseau-Sierra .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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Boisseau-Sierra, M. (2016). Accounting for Public Debt and Deficit. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2294-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2294-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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