Debt and the Local Economy: Problems in Benchmarking Local Government Debt Affordability

Hildreth, W. Bartley; Miller, Gerald J.

doi:10.1111/1540-5850.00091

Cited by 51 publications

(32 citation statements)

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“…Fiscal capacity is very important to water districts because water service provision is highly capital intensive (Mullin, ). Low‐capacity districts face added challenges in accessing credit markets (Hildreth & Miller, ; Simonsen, Robbins, & Helgerson, ), responding to regulatory violations (Scott et al, ), and (perhaps most germane to this analysis) accessing skilled labor (Teodoro & Switzer, ).…”

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polycentricity and the Hollow State: Exploring Shared Personnel as a Source of Connectivity in Fragmented Urban Systems

Scott¹,

Greer²

2018

Policy Studies Journal

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The Ecology of Games (EoG) theory couples institutional rational choice with social network theory, articulating how transaction costs, social capital, and collective action dilemmas shape networks and network outcomes in polycentric governance systems. EoG literature has often focused on social–relational ties across organizational boundaries. However, jurisdictional fragmentation and increased reliance on private contractors in local public service delivery foster another source of network connectivity—shared personnel who work for multiple service providers. Drawing upon novel data of organizational personnel from more than 500 special purpose entities responsible for delivering drinking water to local neighborhoods in the Houston metro area in the state of Texas (United States), we examine how managerial, technical, and financial service delivery personnel connect otherwise independent organizations. We find that districts regulated by a common groundwater management agency and districts which contract with one another are both more likely to share technical and managerial personnel. By studying special districts that have overlapping personnel, we broaden the scope of the EoG framework to include additional layers of governance network complexity. As individual bureaucrats and service professionals play a key role in information transfer and innovation diffusion across organizations, shared personnel networks merit consideration as a mechanism for coordination and collective problem solving in fragmented urban systems.

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Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polycentricity and the Hollow State: Exploring Shared Personnel as a Source of Connectivity in Fragmented Urban Systems

Scott¹,

Greer²

2018

Policy Studies Journal

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“…Martell (2007) conducts an empirical analysis of Hildreth and Miller's (2002) conceptual model of how overlapping jurisdictions may influence municipal borrowing costs. Martel's analysis finds that more fragmented local governments are associated with a reduced debt burden.…”

Section: Overview Of Local Fiscal Overlapmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Interaction Among Overlapping Local Jurisdictions

Brien

2014

SSRN Journal

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“…Research using pre-crisis data considered the sensitivity of state and local revenue streams to macroeconomic conditions (Berg et al, 2000;Hildreth and Miller, 2014;Seyfried and Pantuosco, 2003;Wagner and Elder, 2007;Garrett, 2009;Carroll, 2009). McCubbins and Moule found that tax and expenditure limits tend to increase the pro-cyclicality of municipal revenues (2010).…”

Section: Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Household Debt and Local Public Finances

Cheung

Cunningham

Whitaker

2014

Working Paper (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland)

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In the wake of the Great Recession, steep declines in state and local government expenditures and employment were a large and persistent source of economic weakness. The business cycle was also characterized by large increases and decreases in household debt. We estimate the extent to which variation in local government revenues and expenditures can be explained by variation in the expansion of household debt from 2002 to 2007, and the contraction thereafter. We merge individual credit balance data with municipal fi nancial data from the Census of Governments. Using Census block indicators, we are able to place approximately 12 million credit bureau records into over 6,000 cities and 4,500 school districts. Our results indicate that a one percent additional increase in mortgage debt caused a 0.15 percent increase in local governments' own revenue and a 0.17 to 0.21 percent increase in expenditures. These relationships were evident during the expansion and contraction of mortgage debt. We also fi nd evidence linking nonmortgage debt to municipal fi nances.

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Debt and the Local Economy: Problems in Benchmarking Local Government Debt Affordability

Cited by 51 publications

References 0 publications

Polycentricity and the Hollow State: Exploring Shared Personnel as a Source of Connectivity in Fragmented Urban Systems

Polycentricity and the Hollow State: Exploring Shared Personnel as a Source of Connectivity in Fragmented Urban Systems

Strategic Interaction Among Overlapping Local Jurisdictions

Household Debt and Local Public Finances

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