Browse Our Research 

IMFG hosted a panel discussion entitled, "Municipal Mergers in Montreal and Toronto: Is Bigger Better?", featuring remarks from Enid Slack, Richard M. Bird, Jean-Philippe Meloche, and François Vaillancourt.
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Drawing on academic literature, media reporting, and some illustrative events, this paper takes a careful look at local government in Toronto and examines three of the major fault lines that are causing friction at City Hall.
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Today, American cities generally have more independent authority and fiscal autonomy than their Canadian counterparts. Home Rule status and other legal rights provide municipal governments with significant authority to govern their own affairs without constant state intervention. Yet, in the age of devolution, has federalism really worked to support the service delivery challenges of American cities?
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This paper analyzes economies of scale for two municipal services by considering how per-household municipal costs are affected by a municipality’s size. An econometric model is used to estimate costs associated with fire and police services using data for 445 municipalities in the Province of Ontario.
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This paper examines the system of municipal finance in Hungary with special attention to the current changes in the regulation and finance of Hungarian municipalities and the change in central control over municipal finances in general after 2008, and suggests possible reforms.
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Excessive borrowing by local and regional governments is an important source of macroeconomic instability in monetary unions. Credit markets often indulge this behaviour (lending too much at excessively low interest rates) if they expect national officials to bail out struggling local jurisdictions. Drawing on cross-national and Canadian data, Hanniman discussed the role and limits of fiscal federal institutions in shaping these bailout beliefs.
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Public parks and library systems across North America are experiencing fiscal distress. Short-term cost-cutting measures galvanize the community to oppose the reductions, but are there longer-term solutions to the funding problems?
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IMFG, along with the School of Public Policy and Governance, the Department of Geography and Planning, Urban Strategies, and Global City Indicators Facility, presented the first lecture in the series, "Big City, Big Ideas," entitled Hudson Yards, NYC: The History, Challenges and Opportunities of North America’s Largest City-Building Development.
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