Customer Reviews

Fiscal Administration

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This text book is the worst I have ever been asked to read. For an entry level public budgeting course, this reading was off the charts: boring, unclear, and downright confusing. For sure the worst book I have ever read. It is only thanks to the Internet that I was able to learn the things I needed to for the course, thank God. Because this book wouldn't have cut it. If you see it on a syllabus, take a different class !

In my years in undergrad, law school, and grad school, I have never encountered such a disorganized mess of a book. The fact that I actually had to pay hundres of dollars for this atrocity makes me sick. The chapters are not outlined in a manner that enables the reader to understand how the topics and positions related. The information conveyed is boring, and the author expends far too many words attemtpting to explain his points. HATE THIS BOOK, and the price I paid for it. If this class wasn't a requirement, I would've dropped it solely on the basis of this course text.

Public Budgeting Systems by Robert D. Lee, Philip G. Joyce, and Ronald Wayne Johnson is written more clearly... if you have a choice, buy this book. The problem with Mikesell is that he has to write 200 pages (six chapters) to explain the concept of revenues in the budget process. Too many trees were wasted in the development of this book. Lee, Joyce, and Johnson can do this in 40 pages.

The greater majority of my Public Budgeting Systems class at George Mason University feels that the Mikesell book is written in a manner to lull oneself to sleep... the benefit is that one could read the book rather than using drugs to induce sleep (August 27, 2010: I see the comments on the review below... the drugs comment is obvious sarcasm).

However, if you are required to purchase the Mikesell book, you should go to the Amazon UK web site and complete your transaction there... you can save yourself about 70 to 80 dollars.

This book is written so poorly I can barely get through it. Mikesell goes on and on with run-on sentences, excessive details that get in the way of the concepts, and very poor organization of the concepts. He shifts styles, meanders off topic, and fails to get to the point. He also uses very few graphs or illustrations. Instead, he includes large tables of numerical data (rather than a chart, like a pie, line, or bar graph, that would bring out the important message).

Even though it's in the 7th edition, it reads like a rough first draft. It needs major revision. In order to get through it, I skim for the ideas and skip a lot of the text. When I try to "read" it (i.e. every word), I get so bogged down, I can't move forward and I don't retain much. Mikesell obscures the main concepts in a haze of excess words, unhelpful information, and pervasive use of the passive voice.

Unfortunately, I have to use this book for my graduate Public Financial Management course. If you have the choice, find something better.

This book is organized well, and is an easy read. You don't need a PhD in economics to understand or comprehend the material. Mikesell gets his point across without trying to dazzle the reader with his detailed knowledge and experience of economic concepts. He's a decent instructor too.

This is a simple, clear, practical public finance text. It describes the basic processes of taxing, borrowing (and investing public funds), and spending, carefully delineating capital budgeting and operational budgeting from cash budgeting, their purposes and functions. My students, both in our executive program and regular MBA students find it much more approachable and useful than the other public finance texts I have used, in part because it relentlessly focuses on administrative matters. The text is also sensitive to jurisdictional issues in fiscal management -- federal. state. local.

The questions at chapter ends are thought provoking and challenging without being overwhelming. I provide Excel set-ups for the problems I use, which allows students to perform a greater number of exercises in a timely manner and also for me to grade their work more easily. I'd also like to see more attention to mean variance analysis, which is one of the main integrating ideas in financial management, but otherwise I am quite pleased with this text and recommend it highly.

Almost perfect!The book is new,and reaches me on time.
I find that the question marks printed in the book are all inverted,anyway, it doesn't affect reading.

The content is good and accessible for the graduate student. The examples help to make the subject matter clear and help to understand the concepts. I think this is an above average presentation of the material, I recommend this text to graduate level teachers for Financial Management courses.

Wonderful textbook, as far as textbooks go! Interesting font used throughout the book. Good quotes included and excellent reference material for further study. Had to buy it for my Master's level class and feel that I've learned a lot so far. Halfway through my semester upon writing this review. A must for a municipal manager!

The book is ok as far as books go. It arrived timely and in good condition. Amazon made it easy and safe.