Public budgeting is a field of public administration and a discipline in the academic study of public administration. Budgeting is characterized by its approaches, functions, formation, and type.

Authors Robert W. Smith and Thomas D. Lynch describe public budgeting through four perspectives: incrementalism, comprehensive planning, decision-making, and managerial. The politician sees the budget process as "a political event conducted in the political arena for political advantage". The economist views budgeting as a matter of allocating resources in terms of opportunity cost where allocating resources to one consumer takes resources away from another consumer. The role of the economist, therefore, is to provide decision makers with the best possible information. The accountant's perspective focuses on the accountability value in budgeting which analyzes the amount budgeted to the actual expenditures thereby describing the "wisdom of the original policy". Smith and Lynch's public manager's perspective on a budget is a policy tool to describe the implementation of public policy. Further, they develop an operational definition:

A "budget" is a plan for the accomplishment of programs related to objectives and goals within a definite time period, including an estimate of resources required, together with an estimate of resources available, usually compared with one or more past periods and showing future requirements.

Public budgeting refers to the process of allocating and managing public funds, typically by a government or other public organization. It involves setting priorities, estimating revenue, determining spending levels, and monitoring the use of funds.

Resource Management:

Resource management is an important aspect of public budgeting, as it involves the allocation, utilization, and monitoring of financial, human, and other resources. Some key considerations in resource management of public budgeting include: prioritisation, efficiency, accountability, transparency, flexibility. Public budgets are of a greater size, however, the responsibility for them is assigned to relatively small number of executive representatives. Authors Robert D. Lee. Jr. et al. argue that governments do not use all available resources, even though this has been violated in the United States during times of major crises such as World War II. On the other hand, they suggests that during times unaffected by the crisis most of the Gross domestic product is managed by the private sector. Governments have almost unlimited power to decide how much money will be used for public purposes, whereas private sector is reliable on their ability to sell their product on the market.

Profit Motive:

Private sector motivation is driven by maximisation of profit. It is a form of evaluating success of the private subject. The success of government cannot be measured in terms of profit because most of the activities managed by the government are unprofitable. Although, there are some government activities that yield profit which cannot be always measured in terms of money, even though we realize there is an existing benefit to such programs. Authors Robert D. Lee. Jr. et al. provide an example of cancer research. It obviously yields great returns which cannot be directly measured in terms of money, although future earnings can be estimated according to the value of life. That is why more abstract terms of measuring results of governmental activities are preferable.