Symposium on Public Finance after the Crisis: U.S.A. Introduction

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Financial Crisis and Great Recession, Public Finance has strained amid declining tax revenues and increased demand for transfer payments and service. At the federal and the municipal level government finances have weakened. This special issue is devoted to consideration of financial hardship of both government and citizens. Three articles target various aspects of governments’ challenges and suggest that both government and citizens have legitimate reason for concern in areas which many thought to have been stable or improving, broadly over the 20th century.