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The Obama Administration has proposed reinstatement of the BABs program created as part of the 2009 ARRA legislation to put state and local governments on a fiscally sustainable path by supplementing their capacity to access the bond market. However, it is cost prohibitive to issue BABs and purchase municipal bond insurance. The research questions raised in this study are specific to the lower rated municipalities: 1) did they experience an increase in issuance during the BABs program and 2) what is the effect of BABs on the re-emergence of municipal bond insurance in facilitating access to the capital markets? G.O. debt issuance for years 2001-2011 and BABs data provided by Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters are used to develop a comparative analysis. Results suggest 1) highly rated issuers significantly benefitted and 2) G.O. insured debt issued during the BABs program was down 30% for lower rated issuers when compared to the pre-BABs period.

Rainy day stabilization funds (RDSFs) and local option sales taxes (LOSTs) are two strategies local governments deploy to combat fiscal stress. While the literature on both is robust, it has thus far failed to consider empirically that the two may be connected. One way the marginal LOST dollar could be spent is by saving it for future use. We test the connection with a sample of 414 counties and correct for selection bias with the Heckman correction technique. We find that each $10 increase in LOST revenue per capita is associated with a $0.10 increase in undesignated general fund balance. Though small, the positive effect size supports the theory that LOSTs contribute to a greater propensity to save.

This paper analyzes the impact of economic downturns on the revenue and expense sides of city financing for the period 2003 to 2009 using a convenience sample of the audited end of year financial reports for thirty midsized US cities. The analysis focuses on whether and how quickly and how extensively revenue and spending directions from past years are altered by recessions. A seven year series of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) data serves to explore whether citiesʼ revenues and spending, especially the traditional property tax and core functions such as public safety and infrastructure withstood the brief 2001 and the persistent 2007 recessions? The findings point to consumption (spending) over stability (revenue minus expense) for the recession of 2007, particularly in 2008 and 2009.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the impact of the utilization of organizational practices on the career progression of women to executive positions in state‐level government organizations in the USA.

The design included an online survey instrument sent to a purposive sample of 600 female administrative agency executives in 50 states. A standard multilinear regression model tests the predictive power of three composite explanatory utilization variables on the dependent variable, career progression of women to upper level management. The composite predictor variables are: utilization of work/family practices; utilization of diversity practices; and utilization of promotional practices.

Contrary to expectations, the relationship between career progression of women and family‐friendly utilization does not appear to be statistically significant. However, the time it takes respondents who utilized family‐friendly practices in their organizations to reach upper‐level management decreased by 0.037 years. And contrary to expectations, women who utilize promotion practices are more likely to achieve executive‐level status, even though it does not necessarily take them less time to do so.

This research is distinct from previous studies in that it considers the relationship between the utilization of practices and women's attainment of executive‐level positions.

The purpose of this study is to examine data from a 2016 replication of a 1986 study of upper-level administrators in government agencies in the US State of Utah. The unique cultural context of this state is used to challenge Hakim’s preference theory; specifically, that the individual agency of work-oriented women is stronger than structural constraints, including culture. This study joins others that have questioned the preference theory’s applicability in certain cultural contexts.

A simple approach using difference-of-means t-tests shows that female respondents in 2016 are more like their male contemporaries than they are to their sister administrators 30 years prior. T-tests are also used to compare male respondents in 1986 and 2016.

Women in upper management in 2016 are more likely to be married and have preschool-aged children at home than they were in 1986. These results suggest that women are succeeding at the highest levels in state government administration and also adhering to strong cultural norms. Women’s views on labor market policies changed over time, as well. While women in 2016 are found to resemble their male counterparts in 2016 more than they resemble female respondents in 1986, variations in men’s responses in 1986 and 2016 are statistically no different from zero.

This study challenges the predictions of Hakim’s preference theory in the context of strong cultural norms that dictate separate gender roles. The results contradict the preference theory’s predictions and are consistent with critiques of its applicability across cultural contexts.

The purpose of this research is to examine fiscal health of a specific local enterprise operation: seaports. Seaports provide unique local services while spending and borrowing billions of dollars. Decision makers should be aware of the fiscal health of these enterprises in part to assess the potential risks to the fiscal health of the government at large or public authority. Using eight stock and flow fiscal indicators appropriate for enterprise activities, this research examines eight seaports to compare fiscal health by geographic location and governing structure as well as the connection between long-term and short-term fiscal measures. Descriptive measures suggest that western and public authority ports exhibit better fiscal health than southern and departmental ports with some evidence showing a modest link between long-term and short-term fiscal health.