Publications

December 2012
Background Note

Municipal Bond Structuring

A note on municipal bond structuring. View Details

Keywords: Local Government; Political Process; Debt Management; Financial Planning; Financial Management; Bonds; Urban Development; Local Range; Government Administration

2011
Working Paper

Why Fears about Municipal Credit Are Overblown

Highly publicized predictions of 50-100 municipal defaults have caused anxiety among municipal bond investors. While there is some chance that negative investor sentiment will lead to further spread widening, the probability of the kind of widespread default that would... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Bonds; Investment Return; City

2011
Working Paper

Fractionalization and the Municipal Bond Market

We study the impact of ethnic and religious fractionalization on the U.S. municipal debt market and find that issuers from more ethnically and religiously fractionalized counties pay higher yields on their municipal debt. A two standard deviation increase in religious... View Details

Keywords: Ethnicity Characteristics; Bonds; Financial Markets; Investment Return; Geographic Location; City; Religion; United States

16 Jul 2018
News

Municipalities could benefit from issuing more green bonds

June 2014 (Revised July 2014)
Background Note

An Overview of Project Finance and Infrastructure Finance—2014 Update

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Carla Chavich and Aldo Sesia

Provides an introduction to the fields of project finance and infrastructure finance, and gives a statistical overview of project-financed investments over the years from 2009 to 2013. Examples of project-financed investments include the Kashagan oil field development... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Capital Expenditures; International Finance; Data; Financial History; Economic Development; Corporate Governance; Contracts; Industry Analysis; Banking; Capital Investments; Municipal Finance; Project Finance; Infrastructure; Investment; Projects; Trends

May 1991 (Revised December 1994)
Case

State of Connecticut Municipal Swap

By: Andre F. Perold

The state of Connecticut wants to raise $325 million of long-term fixed-rate debt. One alternative is to do this synthetically--issue long-term variable rate debt and enter into an interest rate swap. The case is a vehicle for analyzing various floating rate structures... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Interest Rates; Taxation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Risk and Uncertainty; New England

May 1994 (Revised December 1994)
Case

Fidelity Investments: Spartan Florida Municipal Fund

By: Andre F. Perold and Sanjay Bhatnagar

Keywords: Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry; Florida

February 1996 (Revised May 1996)
Teaching Note

Fidelity Investments: Spartan Florida Municipal Fund (TN)

By: Andre F. Perold and Wai Lee

Keywords: City; Investment Funds; Florida

June 1995 (Revised May 1996)
Teaching Note

State of Connecticut Municipal Swap TN

By: Andre F. Perold and Wai Lee

Teaching Note for (9-291-024). View Details

Keywords: Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Connecticut

01 Mar 2015
News

Debt-Saddled Municipal Budgets Get a Lifeline

04 Feb 2018
Working Paper Summaries

The Long-Run Dynamics of Electricity Demand: Evidence from Municipal Aggregation

Keywords: by Alexander MacKay, Tatyana Deryugina, and Julian Reif; Utilities

2022
Article

The Pricing and Ownership of U.S. Green Bonds

By: Malcolm Baker, Daniel Bergstresser, George Serafeim and Jeffrey Wurgler

We study green bonds, which are bonds whose proceeds are used for environmentally sensitive purposes. After an overview of the U.S. corporate and municipal green bonds markets, we study pricing and ownership patterns using a simple framework that incorporates assets... View Details

Keywords: Green Bond; Pricing; Climate Finance; ESG; SRI; Sustainable; Municipal; Bonds; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Markets; Price; Ownership; United States

April 2015 (Revised April 2022)
Case

Bankruptcy in the City of Detroit

By: Stuart Gilson, Kristin Mugford and Annelena Lobb

The June 2013 bankruptcy of the city of Detroit, Michigan was, at the time, the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. Detroit had struggled for years with a weakening tax base, high unemployment, a heavy debt load and increasing retiree costs. These... View Details

Working Paper

The Long-Run Dynamics of Electricity Demand: Evidence from Municipal Aggregation

By: Tatyana Deryugina, Alexander MacKay and Julian Reif

Economic theory suggests that demand is more elastic in the long run relative to the short run, but evidence on the empirical relevance of this phenomenon is scarce. We study the dynamics of residential electricity demand by exploiting price variation arising from a... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Demand and Consumers; Price; Policy; Mathematical Methods

January 2020
Article

The Long-Run Dynamics of Electricity Demand: Evidence from Municipal Aggregation

By: Tatyana Deryugina, Alexander MacKay and Julian Reif

We study the dynamics of residential electricity demand by exploiting a natural experiment that produced large and long-lasting price changes in over 250 Illinois communities. Using a flexible difference-in-differences matching approach, we estimate that the price... View Details

Keywords: Electricity Demand; Consumption Dynamics; Energy; Policy; Demand and Consumers; Price; Mathematical Methods

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January 2021
Article

State and Local Government Employment in the COVID-19 Crisis

By: Daniel Green and Erik Loualiche

Local governments are facing large losses in revenues and increased expenditures because of the COVID-19 crisis. We document a causal relationship between fiscal pressures induced by COVID-19 and the layoffs of state and local government workers. States that depend... View Details

Keywords: Local Government; Municipal Finance; Public Finance; Fiscal Capacity; Fiscal Policy; Governance; Local Range; Health Pandemics; Employment; Finance; Policy; Public Sector

2022
Working Paper

The Impact of Campaign Finance Rules on Candidate Selection and Electoral Outcomes: Evidence from France

By: Nikolaj Broberg, Vincent Pons and Clémence Tricaud

This paper investigates the effects of campaign finance rules on electoral outcomes. In French departmental and municipal elections, candidates competing in districts above 9,000 inhabitants face spending limits and are eligible for public reimbursement if they obtain... View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Outcome or Result; France