Collaborative Research in The Growth and Decline of State Public Assets: A Study in Instrutional Political Economuy

20世纪70年代的纽约市和克利夫兰财政危机、S时期的财政危机、公共基础设施的衰败、公共雇员养老金债务的不断增加以及州和地方政府现金预算短缺的发生率增加，表明并不是所有的州和地方政府都有坚实的财政基础。最近和继续削减联邦国内支出以及对州和地方政府的援助意味着州和地方部门面临更大的财政和政治压力。需求和要求保持不变，曾经去华盛顿寻求公共资金和有利监管的利益集团现在专注于州和地方部门。这些因素对州和地方政府的财政可行性具有重大的长期影响。随着当前资源的减少和支出压力的增加，这些政府的官员可能会转向唯一可以获得美元的地方--资产账户。通过未能维持国家的基础设施，通过为养老金提供资金不足，或者简单地通过借款来支付当前的服务，政客和官僚们可以聚集额外的资源来满足服务需求。然而，问题是，虽然提供了目前的服务，但公共资产却耗尽了。在这一过程中往往会损失的人是未来的纳税人，他们继承的公共资产基数比他们应该继承的要低。在这项调查中，研究人员正在评估州政府的资产和负债基础，以及在过去15年中它是如何变化的。该项目的数据期为大陆48个州的1971至1984年。这项研究的数据包括对政府持有的公共财富的新估计，即政府资产和负债之间的差额。政府资产的存量是其基础设施(道路、建筑物和计算机)和金融资产(现金、股票和债券)。负债包括短期和长期债务以及资金不足的公共养老基金。公共财富水平在一个财政年度内的变化构成了政府储蓄或不储蓄，这取决于财富的增加或减少。研究人员评估了州政府官员的预算决策，以扩大当前的服务和转移，降低当前的税收水平，并最终扩大或耗尽国家公共资产。这一评估隐含着对为什么公共部门和私营部门表现出的时间偏好可能不同的分析。

The New York City and Cleveland fiscal crises of the 1970's, the decay of public infra-structures, growing public employee pension debt, and the increased incidence of shortfalls in the cash budgets of state and local governments suggest that not all state and local governments stand on a firm fiscal base. Recent and continued cutbacks in federal domestic spending and in aid to state and local governments means added financial and political pressure on the state and local sectors. Needs and demands remain constant and interest groups who once went to Washington for public dollars and favorable regulation now focus on the state and local sectors. These factors have significant long-run effects on the fiscal viability of state and local governments. With declining current resources and rising spending pressures, officials in these governments may turn to the one place where dollars are available - - the asset accounts. By failing to maintain the state's infra-structure, by underfunding pensions, or by simply borrowing to pay for current services, politicians and bureaucrats can gather additional resources to meet service demands. The problem obtains, however, that while current services are provided, public assets are depleted. The persons who tend to lose in this process are future taxpayers who inherit a lower public asset base than they should. In this investigation, the researchers are assessing the asset and liability base of state governments and how it has changed in the past fifteen years. The data period for this project is 1971 to 1984 for the forty-eight mainland states. The data for this research include new estimates of governmentally held public wealth, defined as the difference between the value of a government's assets and of its liabilities. The stock of a government's assets are its infra-structure, (roads, buildings, and computers), and its financial assets, (cash, stocks and bonds). Liabilities are short and long-term debt and unfunded public pension funds. Change in the level of this public wealth over a fiscal year constitutes government savings or dissavings, depending upon whether wealth increases or decreases. The researchers assess the budgetary decisions of state officials to expand current services and transfers, to reduce current tax levels, and finally to expand or deplete state public assets. Implicit in this assessment is an analysis of why the time preferences exhibited in the public and private sectors may differ.