In 2010, Massachusetts legislators considered whether to create a state-owned bank as a means to address concerns about credit availability and other economic challenges stemming from the financial crisis and Great Recession of 2007-09. In 2011 a commission was established to investigate the...

This paper examines the distribution of unrestricted municipal aid in Massachusetts, which has been a major concern to civic leaders and elected officials of many communities, including Springfield. The paper develops a measure of the municipal fiscal gap indicating the relative need of...

This paper provides a review of the literature on U.S. central city growth and distress during the second half of the twentieth century. It finds that city growth tended to be higher in metropolitan areas with favorable weather, higher growth, and greater human capital, while distress was...