Definition
Financial health of a local government refers to its ability to be solvent, both in the short and long run, and at the same time to maintain a certain minimum level of services for its community; the related concept of fiscal distress is associated with the ability of a local government to meet short- and long-term financial obligations and avoid State takeover or bankruptcy.
Introduction
Especially in recent years, local governments (LGs) across the world, and municipal governments in particular, have confronted varying degrees of financial distress mainly as consequence of severe economic crises. LG’s financial distress is a complex and multidimensional process. The causes behind jurisdictions that fall into financial distress are varied, and no simple linear relationship exists. Falling revenues, central State and regional grant cuts, investment losses to pension funds, and...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Clark TN (1977) Fiscal management of American cities: funds flow indicators. J Account Res 15(Supplement):54–94
Downing RG (1991) Urban county fiscal stress: a survey of public officials’ perceptions and government experiences. Urban Aff Rev 27(2):314–325
Ernst & Young (2012) Overview and Comparison of Public Accounting and Auditing Practices in the 27 EU Member States: Prepared for Eurostat. Bruxelles: Ernst & Young.
Kloha P, Weissert CS, Kleine R (2005) Developing and testing a composite model to predict local fiscal distress. Public Adm Rev 65(3):313–323
Levine H, Justice JB, Scorsone EA (2013) Handbook of local government fiscal health. Jones & Bartlett Learning, Burlington
López BB, Alijarde BI, Montesinos VJ (2003) Utilidad de la información contable en los rating de dueda pública. Revista Española de Financiación y Contabilidad 32(117):501–537
Padovani E, Scorsone EA (2011) Measuring financial health of local governments: a comparative framework. In: Yearbook of Swiss Administrative Sciences. Swiss Society of Administrative Sciences, Zurich
Petersen J (1974) The rating game. The Twentieth-Century Fund, New York
Peterson G (1976) Finance. In: Gorham W, Galzer N (eds) The urban predicament. The Urban Institute, Washington, DC, pp 35–118
PricewaterhouseCoopers (2014) Collection of Information Related to the Potential Impact, including Costs, of Implementing Accrual Accounting in the Public Sector and Technical Analysis of the Suitability of Individual IPSAS Standards, prepared for Eurostat 2013/S 107–182395. Brussels, Belgium: PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Padovani, E. (2016). Financial Health and Distress in Local Government. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2314-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2314-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences