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...

Monitoring the fiscal stress levels of local governments at the state level is a critical strategy for predicting and preventing fiscal crises. The State of Michigan currently monitors the fiscal stress levels of its local governments using a set of indicators created in 2002. These indicators,...

A new wave of “market smart” modern input subsidy schemes has emerged in sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade with the promise of increasing input use and grain yields while building or complementing private sector efforts. We study the extent to which geographic and household level...

Raising agricultural productivity to meet growing food demands while increasing the resilience of rain-fed farm systems to climate variability is one of the most pressing contemporary development challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Anchored on the three core principles of minimum tillage...

No one tax system is best suited for all countries or even for one country at all points of time. The tax structure as well as the tax level should change with the structural change in the economy during development. Otherwise the government expenditure-revenue gap over time may become too wide...