IMFG is pleased to announce the release of two new papers.
In How to Reform the Property Tax: Lessons from around the World, Enid Slack and Richard M. Bird look at the challenges of reforming the property tax. The property tax is the bedrock of local finances. According to most economists, it is a good tax for many reasons: property is immovable, and property taxes are visible, economically efficient, and clearly tied to local spending. But reforms are often unpopular and difficult to carry out in practice. Slack and Bird identify common barriers to property tax reform and make concrete recommendations on how to implement reform.
In A Good Crisis: Canadian Municipal Credit Conditions after the Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy, Kyle Hanniman examines why Canadian municipal credit conditions improved so dramatically after the 2008 recession compared to other subnational governments around the world. Hanniman’s study compares municipal, provincial, and federal credit conditions, reveals the resilience of Canada’s municipal borrowers in the face of global credit shocks, and speaks to the virtues of Canada’s tightly regulated system of municipal borrowing.
About the Authors:
- Richard M. Bird is a Senior Fellow of the IMFG, and Professor Emeritus in the Joseph Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
- Kyle Hanniman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, and a former IMFG Post-Doctoral Fellow.
- Enid Slack is the Director of the IMFG, and an Adjunct Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.