Unravelling the capital charging riddle - some empirical evidence from Victoria

Since 1995, the State of Victoria has been experimenting with capital charging regimes for budget sector agencies. The intent of these schemes is to allow the opportunity cost of capital to be reflected in the assessed total costs of outputs produced by agencies the subject of the charge. While literature produced by government central financial agencies has forcefully advocated this experiment, and asserted a range of resulting improvements to budget sector asset management and general financial management practices, academic examinations of the subject have been mixed in their conclusions. Empirical evidence relating to the effect and effectiveness of these schemes has been scarce. This paper seeks to contribute to the literature by providing some empirical evidence on the impact of capital charging in one jurisdiction, Victoria, Australia.