Research Maps Four Decades of Public Budgeting & Finance Literature, Highlights Need for Practitioner Collaboration and Emerging Research Areas
-
Chen and colleagues used structural topic modeling (STM) to identify 15 topics covered in 40 years of Public Budgeting & Finance journal articles.
-
They found decreasing practitioner authorship over time; more engagement is needed.
-
Machine learning is rarely used to analyze public budgeting and finance literature. This was one of the first studies to apply it.
-
Findings help scholars, practitioners, and students see research landscape and collaboration opportunities.
-
Future public finance research should address healthcare, technology, climate change, and other societal challenges.