Economists have traditionally used a simple rule that restricts primary deficits to less than a threshold given by the interest rate growth rate differential and existing debt level to judge fiscal sustainability. This rule derives from a single period application of the government's budget...

Do citizens engage in comparative performance evaluation across local governments? And if they do, how can we disentangle this behavior from other forms of strategic interactions among local governments or simple spatial correlation across neighboring jurisdictions? We use spatial econometrics...