The Accounting Blind Spot

PPP-ABSPublic Finance

Diagnosticstests the theory against one real system

SSRNpublished record

6topics

Public infrastructure is increasingly delivered through financialised models like PPPs despite evidence of higher long-term costs. Part 2 of the PPP trilogy — the instrument that answers its call for substantive (not cosmetic) off-balance-sheet treatment is specified in CADA.

Where it sits. Part 2 of the PPP trilogy. Diagnoses the fiscal opacity of PPP accounting frameworks — public accounting lacks the categories to represent capital continuity, mission cycles, or deferred fragility. The instrument satisfying its call for substantive off-balance-sheet treatment is CADA.

The long-form argument for this work still lives on the existing explainer at /explainer/accounting-blind-spot. This page carries the abstract and the corpus metadata — the frame the argument would move into unchanged.

Key termsAccounting Blind Spot · Capital Continuity · Mission Cycles · Deferred Fragility · Public-Sector Accounting · Recognition Asymmetry

In the canonprobetests the theory against one real system

The paperThe Accounting Blind Spot in Public Infrastructure and Public Goods — read it on SSRN →

Nearby in the corpus

Also in Diagnostics

The works either side of this one in the canon order — what it builds on and what builds on it.

Speaking in DecadesPPP-LHCPublic Finance→The Missing Constitution of MarketsMECMarket Architecture→Temporal AsymmetryPPPPolitical Cycles→

Where to go next

Three directions out

Where to go once you have the argument — the paper it comes from, the instrument that measures it, or the next thing it depends on.

Measure itinstrumentsRun the measurement this argument implies against your own institution.→The library65 worksEvery work, by layer, with the argument and the paper side by side.→In the field2 liveWhere the argument has met real money and published dates.→