In response to a request from the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, we propose a model to estimate default probabilities for bonds issued by cities. The model can be used with financial data available in Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports that cities are required to...

Purpose The volume of municipal bond insurance declined dramatically following the financial crisis of 2008. Insurance now is making a gradual comeback. Two related considerations complicate identification of the best insurance plan. One is the current practice in the municipal market of issuing...

Purpose In April and May of 2010 Moody's recalibrated its municipal bond ratings to a global scale, the system they use for other asset classes and the same scale used by Standard and Poor's (S&P). The authors investigate the impact of Moody's recalibration on true interest cost (TIC) of...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between single-state municipal bond fund risk and water scarcity in the USA. Design/methodology/approach The authors compare the risk profiles of funds from states with limited water resources with those from states without...

The developing countries, especially in the Balkans, barely use the municipal bonds as an alternative way of financing their activities. This paper is part of the project “The municipal bonds as an alternative source of financing municipals activities and the effective management of funds,...

The drastic increase in volume of local government debt in Hungary started in 2006. My hypothesis assumes that a supposable improvement in local municipal financial management might resulted in the spread of bond issue, which in Hungary is still considered innovative. The paper is aimed at...