Local government fiscal health is typically assessed using objective financial indicators, but little is understood about how local officials subjectively understand their own fiscal health. We compare self-assessment data from the Michigan Public Policy Survey with financial data on Michigan local governments to explore the extent to which self-assessments align with conventional financial indicators. Qualitative results reveal that local officials emphasize long-term spending pressures (e.g. roads, infrastructure) and external factors, such as uncertainty around property values and state aid (i.e. revenue sharing) payments, when assessing their fiscal health. Quantitative results provide some corroborating evidence, but in general, conventional indicators are not powerful predictors of self-assessments, especially for high-stress governments. We believe that part of the disparity is that financial indicators do a poor job of capturing what local officials say they are most worried about. We suggest that self-assessments may be a useful supplement to conventional measures in capturing “true” fiscal health.
Join Christina Goldbaum, Bronwyn Bruton and John Ciorciari for an examination of the U.S. military’s presence and role in Africa and the implications for civilian lives and global security.
In July 2014 Washington Post journalist and former Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian, was arrested by Iranian police on charges of espionage. What followed was a harrowing 544 day stint in an Iranian prison, and an extraordinary campaign led by his family, the Washington Post, and prominent journalism organizations for his release. Join Rezaian for a discussion on his book “Prisoner,” which details his 18-month imprisonment in a maximum security facility, his journey through the Iranian legal system and how his release became part of the Iran nuclear deal.
Please join experts Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton; Professor of Law Barry Friedman, New York University; and Jessica Gillooly, PhD Candidate of the Ford School, in a panel moderated by Ford School Faculty David Thacher for a panel examining racial bias in emergency calls.
The Data Privacy and Portability in Financial Technology Symposium celebrates the Michigan Technology Law Review’s 25th Anniversary by hosting an event dedicated to cutting-edge scholarship at the intersection of technology and the law. Specifically, this symposium is designed to examine the inherent tensions between securing privacy rights and the ease at which transactions occur, facilitated by new innovative technologies.
On February 23, the Ford School will host graduate students from 14 univerisities to participate in the 2019 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition. This year’s competition—a partnership between the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA)—will connect a record 585 students from 11 global host sites including Dhaka, Cairo, Mexico City, and San Francisco to tackle policy issues associated with forced migration through computer-based simulated game play.
Join the Program for Practical Policy Engagement, Communications & Outreach, Public Engagement & Impact, and Michigan News for a Getting Stuff Done: Communications Skills Series.
Donia Human Rights Center Panel. Human Rights in North Korea: Crimes Against Humanity, Advocacy for Change, and Future ProspectsKang Cheol Hwan, Jared Genser, Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, and Kiyoteru Tsutsui
Conversations Across Differences,
Policy Talks @ the Ford School
The conversation will consider the opportunities for and obstacles to bipartisan cooperation, while also tackling in thoughtful dialogue some of the most pressing issues currently dividing the two parties.
Citi Foundation Lecture,
Policy Talks @ the Ford School
*Stream* Kalil will discuss some of the S&T policy priorities of President Obama as well as “lessons learned” from his service at the White House, and address future challenges for U.S. S&T policy.
The 2019 Schuman Challenge will welcome undergraduate students from seventeen different U.S. colleges and universities to the EU Delegation to the United States in Washington DC on February 14-15, 2019. During the competition students will work in teams to develop and defend before senior international affairs professionals new policies for transatlantic cooperation supporting Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders
Join us for a student workshop lunch and conversation with Professor Jennifer Haverkamp discussing about International Climate Change Diplomacy. If you are interested, please sign up here.
Governments have increasingly relied on exchange rate stabilization policies, specifically intervention operations in currency markets and capital controls, to offset external shocks. The focus on exchange rate stabilization is not limited to countries with pegged exchange rate regimes. Indeed, a number of countries that currently actively intervene in currency markets self-describe as floaters. The U.S. has responded by raising concerns that these policies amount to currency manipulation. Article IV of the IMF Articles of Agreement requires that members “avoid manipulating exchange rates” in order to gain an unfair competitive advantage over other members. Separately (since 1989) the U.S. Treasury must report to Congress biannually regarding whether individual trading partners are manipulating currencies for unfair advantage. This talk will examine both the theoretical underpinning and empirical evidence on currency intervention and manipulation, with the goal of better understanding when exchange rate stabilization is effective from the point of view of domestic policy-makers and when it should be considered manipulative from a global perspective.
Conversations Across Differences,
Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling Health Policy Fund,
Policy Talks @ the Ford School
This webinar on January 29, 2019 was jointly hosted by CLOSUP and the Michigan Municipal League. The webinar features Professor Manny Teodoro from Texas A&M University, speaking on water and sewer system finance and policy, including how to measure affordability, and policy options for rate structures and related issues.
Drawing on examples from city government in the UK and US, Carrie will share what a Chief Digital Officer does all day, and a glimpse of the future of city government.
CLOSUP Lecture Series,
Conversations Across Differences
Please join us in a Conversation Across Difference, as Professor Teodoro discusses alternative ownership and management models for water and sewer utilities, as well as the political dimensions of public, private, and public-private partnerships (P3s), and what they mean for cost and quality.
The Program for Practical Policy Engagement (P3E) in partnership with the Students of Color in Public Policy (SCPP) will hold a professional development workshop featuring guest speaker James Feagin, founder & CEO of projects+PEOPLE.
In recent years, “period poverty” has come to be seen as an important development issue, with sanitary pads becoming the main solution. Rather than the result of systematic and unbiased evidence gathering, however, Parthasarathy argues that this problem and solution are the result of the new credibility regimes that underlie development governance today.
Join the Program for Practical Policy Engagement, Communications & Outreach, Public Engagement & Impact, and Michigan News for a Getting Stuff Done: Communications Skills Series.
In his new book, The Once and Future Worker, Manhattan Institute scholar Oren Cass challenges our basic assumptions about what prosperity means and where it comes from.
The massive dollar amounts associated with student loan debt and the impact on individuals and the financial stability of the overall economy has attracted the attention of journalists, economists, and average Americans. There are, however, several myths associated with these eye-popping numbers, and Susan Dynarski, Professor of public policy, education and economics will discuss a few of these myths in our January Blue Bag Lunch Talk.
For example, in a recent paper for Brookings, "The Trouble with Student Loans? Low Earnings, Not High Debt," Professor Dynarski debunks the popular notion that more student debt leads to higher student loan default rates.
In fact, research shows that default rates are highest among individuals with smaller loan balances. Students borrowing under $5,000 default at a rate of 34 percent, compared to 18 percent for those borrowing more than $100,000.
Among policy proposals advocated by Professor Dynarski to address the student loan crisis is to automatically enroll borrowers who are late on payments in income-based repayment, or adjust loan payments each pay period, similar to the current income-tax withholding system.
Join Ford School students on Wednesday, December 12, 2018 from 1pm-2:30pm for their final Applied Policy Seminar student flash presentations in the Betty Ford Classroom (1110)/Weill Hall. Reception to follow.RSVP Here.
In Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America.
