"Researchers in Germany have nowadays access to confidential micro data compiled from official statistics in a way that could not have been dreamt of just a few years ago. This paper describes the new institutions that grant data access - most importantly the research data centers located inside...

This study examines the impacts of socioeconomic characteristics of a region on the availability of resources for public elementary and secondary education. A public school administrator is assumed to be confronted with a problem analogous to that confronted by any other firm manager. An...

Countries vary widely with respect to the share of government spending on health, a metric that can serve as a proxy for the extent to which health is prioritized by governments. World Health Organization (WHO) data estimate that, in 2011, health's share of aggregate government expenditure in...

Since its publication over 60 years ago, Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest and Prices (1936) has substantially influenced both macroeconomic theory and popular opinion about what governments can and should do. However, the extent to which counter-cyclical stabilization has actually...

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) finances about 13.5 percent of its budget outlays through user fees for overtime and unscheduled meat and poultry inspections. User fees play an increasingly important role in financing government programs, and FSIS has frequently requested...

This paper examines the development of public finance as a subfield of study at the University of Wisconsin from 1892 through 1929. Considered is the historical evolution of faculty and course work in public finance at Wisconsin, with comparisons offered to Harvard, Chicago and Columbia. While...

Municipal bonds have recently been of national interest and Michigan’s strained economy over the past decade has made bond issuance in the state of particular interest to a variety of stakeholders. Given the close connection between municipal bonds and property taxes, the fall-off in the...