Budgets

Budgets

Research

Bruce Yandle | Mar 01, 2013
There was only one lane open as I made my trip to Atlanta; the other three were blocked with those unhappy yellow and black make-believe barrels used by the highway folks. Traffic flow was constrained by efforts to repair potholes and broken pavement. We in the slow lane had little choice in the matter. Instead of 70, we were slowed to 20 miles per hour. We had to accept our fate, or find another route at the next exit.
, Tami Gurley-Calvez, Genevieve M. Kenney, Kosali Simon and Douglas Wissoker | Oct 02, 2012
We use an innovative redesign of West Virginia’s Medicaid that took place from 2007 to 2010 to estimate the causal impact of incentives within Medicaid to encourage better health and health care behaviors and reduce emergency room (ER) visits.
Bruce Yandle | Sep 11, 2012
The U.S. economy has not been healthy since 2001 when 9/11 pushed the country into a recession. As the accompanying data tell us, real GDP growth has risen to meet the long-term average of 3.11 percent just once since 2001, and that was in 2004. The combination of wars, financial collapse, natural disasters, and political games has taken a heavy toll on economic growth. No one is talking about 3 percent or better growth anytime in the foreseeable future. But it’s not just about Democrats and Republicans. It’s about something deep in the economy.
Jeffrey Miron, Robert Sarvis | Feb 13, 2012
This paper examines the fiscal health of the states, focusing on two worrisome characteristics: an understatement of unfunded pension liabilities and ever-increasing expenditures, driven primarily by health care costs.
Eileen Norcross, Benjamin J. VanMetre | Nov 08, 2011
This working paper shows how Rhode Island’s state and municipal pension systems face large and growing unfunded pension liabilities and provides recommendations for reform.
Eileen Norcross, Benjamin J. VanMetre | Oct 11, 2011
It is important to understand that Illinois’s current fiscal crisis is not the result of a single critical event but rather a series of events in Illinois’s economic and fiscal history. This paper uncovers why Illinois's 2012 budget strategies are unlikely to work.

Testimony & Comments

Expert Commentary

Apr 08, 2013

If you’re finding it harder and harder to live in California, you’re not alone.
Apr 08, 2013

States like California and New York are living off the accumulated capital of past economic freedom. Now that the political tide has turned decisively against economic freedom in those states, they are shedding people and jobs and growing more slowly than the rest of the country. Places like the Dakotas, Carolinas, Oklahoma, and Texas, which have reversed their anti-market policies of the past, represent America’s dynamic economic future.
Apr 05, 2013

People follow jobs, and jobs follow freedom. That's one of the main results from the third and much improved edition of the Mercatus Center's "Freedom in the Fifty States: Index of Personal and Economic Freedom."
Mar 28, 2013

Google's auto-complete feature has long been a source of amusement, but as a recent feature on BuzzFeed makes clear, it also says a lot about what it's like to live and work in different states in the country.
Mar 05, 2013

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder recently announced that he would assign an emergency financial manager to Detroit, stating that the city cannot feasibly pay back its $14 billion in debt and long-term liabilities. The governor asserted that local policymakers have failed to provide basic services that Michigan municipalities are required to provide their residents.
Aug 29, 2012

The Washington Examiner’s Conn Carroll points to a new study showing that the states have accumulated $4 trillion in “debt,” when you consider their unfunded liabilities and other fiscal shortfalls. Add that number to our $11 trillion federal debt held by the public and our almost $5 trillion in intra-governmental debt, and you just might start worrying about this country’s ability to pay its bills.

Charts

Using data from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the following two charts place the post-1960s explosion in federal grants to state and local governments in perspective.

Experts

Podcasts

Jason Sorens | April 23, 2013
Jason Sorens Discusses Freedom in Virginia on Virginia Public Radio based on the 2013 edition of Freedom in the 50 States.

Recent Events

Mercatus Center budget scholars will share their academic research and practical knowledge with local thought leaders in a half-day seminar hosted by the Bluegrass Institute in Lexington, Kentucky.