Employing Mental Accounting to Rationalize Public Spending to Achieve Sustainable Development

Abstract

Today, with the progress made in all areas of life, the concept of mental accounting and its impact on public expenditure in order to achieve sustainable development, is considered one of the important foundations adopted by modern accounting and behavioral economics, mental accounting has positive and negative effects, and if this concept is well known, its negative effects will be eliminated, as well as it must be known that there is a relationship between mental accounting and the branches of accounting, including cost accounting, administrative and tax accounting, and it is possible to benefit from mental accounting in this aspect. Mental accounting is a practice that affects both individuals and governments. The government's goal of rationalizing spending and achieving sustainable development can be achieved through the application of the mental accounting concept in preparing the state's general budget. Data analysis was used using the statistical program (SPSS), where the answers to the questionnaire questions were collected after being distributed to a sample of those who have experience in the field of accounting in the government sector. The results were concluded that there is a correlation between mental accounting and rationalization of government expenditure, and there is a direct correlation (strong positive) with significant significance between mental accounting and rationalization of government spending. There is also a proven effect between mental accounting and the achievement of sustainable development, as well as a proven effect of rationalizing government spending on achieving sustainable development.