This paper reviews public sector management accounting research in less developed countries (LDCs). The review is based on 32 papers which were published in accounting and public administration journals over the years 2000-2013. In addition to categorizations of the papers according to the research site’s continents, management accounting topics, theories and methods of data collection, a thematic review of the papers is presented. It firstly addresses the theme of management accounting practices as part of more general public sector financial management reforms, which are inspired by New Public Management. The review shows that a univocal explanation is lacking about the contextual circumstances that contribute to an adoption of these reforms which achieve relevant goals on, for example, transparency and controllability. The extent of political stability is a factor that seems to matter most. Secondly, the review discusses LDC-specific contextual variables which could have an impact on man-agement accounting (or financial management) practices in the public sector, such as politiza-tion, patronage, informality and low institutional capacity. The reviewed research is, in gen-eral, not very precise about the impact of these variables on management accounting practices. The paper finally suggests some directions for future research, and advocates especially qualitative studies which try to understand management accounting practices as embedded in their context, relying on one of the various branches of institutional theories. The most prom-ising are those theories or combinations of theories which can simultaneously tackle context (e.g., political, cultural, historical) and agency.