In 2013, Savage received the Aaron B. Wildavsky Award for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement in budgeting and public financial management from the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management, and in 2014 he was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
The first book explores the origins of the idea of balancing budgets and its effect on American politics, fiscal policies, and institutional development from 1690 through the Reagan presidency.
This book explores how the idea of peer review of federal research funding is violated by universities that engage in earmarking.
Employing an historical institutionalist approach, the book first explores the Ottoman, British, and Ba'athist origins of Iraq's budgetary institutions.
The common thread connecting these books together is that budgeting and budgetary policies are deeply influenced by and reflect the contest over ideas and values.