Panel:
State Financial Policy Challenges and Innovations in Debt Markets & Pensions
(Public and Non-Profit Management and Finance)
Friday, November 13, 2015: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Pearson II (Hyatt Regency Miami)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Panel Organizers: Jeffrey Diebold, North Carolina State University
Panel Chairs: Jeffrey Diebold, North Carolina State University
Discussants: Travis St. Clair, University of Maryland and Stephan Whitaker, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
Our panel consists of four papers from a diverse group of researchers. Each paper offers insight into how subnational governments in the United States address the challenges of managing debt and accrued pension liabilities through innovative, evidence-based financial policy. Two papers on debt offer an analysis of innovations in municipal securities markets in addition to investigating whether states receive an interest cost penalty for mounting debt. The pension papers provide analysis on the inequitable transfer of pension funding across school districts in addition to a study of pension policy diffusion of innovations across all states. The studies use a diversity of econometric methods, including 2SLS to address endogeneity of borrowing cost and debt, a discrete time hazard model, and forecasting models. The range of methods is also paralleled by the various institutional affiliations represented on the panel, including both researchers and practitioners. This timely panel offers a range of perspectives on how states address the financial challenges of debt management and pension policy and associated policy innovations.
