Call for Papers: Symposium on Sub-sovereign Debt

The journal of Public Finance and Management calls for submissions for a special issue on the topic of sub-sovereign debt.

Sub-sovereign debt refers to liabilities owed by different levels of sub-national governments and guarantees for quasi-public agencies and corporations controlled by sub-national governments. The past decade has seen a significant growth of sub-national debt in many countries. For instance, in the United States, total debt outstanding on the municipal bond market has almost doubled in the past ten years. In China, where sub-national governments are prohibited from borrowing by its Budget Law, the transmuted debts through various government controlled investment corporations have mounted to approximately $2.19 trillion (about 37% of GDP) at the end of 2010.

The purpose of this symposium is to help enhance our understanding of sub-sovereign debt, debt management, and financial markets for sub-national borrowing.

We invite submissions on a range of topics within the aforementioned scope. We are especially interested in studies examining national, international and comparative levels, as well as studies that focus on solely one country or one sub-national government. Methodology and geographical area are open.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Studies that examine factors (such as institutional settings, cultural factors, etc.) that explain the size of sub-national debt across governments and over time. For instance, studies that investigate how fiscal decentralization, urbanization, and globalization affect the growth of sub-national government debt in emerging economies.

2. Debt financing and management theory, institutions and practice. For example, the effectiveness of market disciplines compared to government regulations on managing debt; the effectiveness of different types of governmental institutions.

3. The credit risk of sub-sovereign debt. For instance, how sub-sovereign off-budget debts incurred through special financing vehicles affect the credit risk of the borrowing body and the financial stability of the economy.

4. The introduction of the development and regulation of sub-sovereign governmental bond markets outside of the United States, particularly in emerging economies.

5. Mechanisms of sub-sovereign bond markets (including both the primary market and the secondary market) in the United States or other countries. For instance, studies that investigate how different institutions affect interest costs, trading costs, and liquidity of sub-sovereign borrowing.

6. Alternative capital financing methods. For instance, the comparison of debt financing and other alternative capital financing methods.

Submission Instructions:

Interested authors should email a 500 word extended abstract of their article to Professor Gao Liu, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87111, USA (email: gliu@unm.edu) by July 31, 2011. Abstracts will be reviewed and competitively selected. The decision will be notified by Aug. 15, 2011. Authors whose abstracts have been selected will then be invited to submit fulllength manuscripts. The final selection for the symposium will be determined based on a double-blind peer review of the submitted manuscripts. Accepted articles will be published in Public Finance and Management.

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