Examining various methods of debt management used in the US., Handbook of Debt Management, provides a comprehensive analysis of securities offered for sale by municipalities, states, and the federal government. The book covers laws regarding municipal bonds, the economic choice between debt and taxes and the tax-exempt status of municipal bond owners, capital budgeting, including state and local government practices, developing governmental and intergovernmental debt policies, pay-as-you-go with debt financing for capital projects, US Internal Revenue Service regulations on arbitrage in state and local government debt proceeds investment, US treasury auctions, and more.

The right turn in U. S. politics has increased conflict over both ends and means in government budgeting and financial management. Overlapping and competing views of the way the world works drive finance officials' practice. Taking a new look at public financial management that acknowledges the multiple, competing realities, Government Budgeting and Financial Management in Practice: Logics to Make Sense of Ambiguity examines transaction cost economics and other small government, managed-by-the-market techniques as the latest reincarnation of public budgeting and financial management orthodoxy. Gerald J. Miller reviews new research on the continuing validity of the political dimension of government finance decisions and the multiple, intensely argued constructions of reality the finance official must make sense of.

Miller discusses major advances in interpretive approaches to budgeting and finance and how they dominate writing in the broader field of public administration. He also examines the effects of the explosion of information systems, new budget techniques, nonconventional ways of spending, and new technologies. The book uses a question as the motivating force to understand some facets of today's government budgeting, finance, and financial management: where do the critical assumptions come from to drive financial management? Miller takes the history of reform, developments in the field and the logics finance officials say they use as sources for these assumptions and examines what they reveal about constructions of the government finance world.

Exploring new avenues of financial management thinking, the book discusses ambiguity and interpretations that move the unclear preferences, ends, and goals toward consensus. The author identifies an alternative approach to research that explains important facets of financial management. This approach is drawn directly from practice, events and problems in public organizations and from the creedal bent of many political actors in competition.

The study of public policy and the methods of policy analysis are among the most rapidly developing areas in the social sciences. Policy analysis has emerged to provide a better understanding of the policymaking process and to supply decision makers with reliable policy-relevant knowledge about pressing economic and social problems. Presenting a broad, comprehensive perspective, the Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory, Politics, and Methods covers the historical development of policy analysis, its role in the policy process, and empirical methods. The handbook considers the theory generated by these methods and the normative and ethical issues surrounding their practice. Written by leading experts in the field, this book- -Deals with the basic origins and evolution of public policy -Examines the stages of the policy-making process -Identifies political advocacy and expertise in the policy process -Focuses on rationality in policy decision-making and the role of policy networks and learning -Details argumentation, rhetoric, and narratives -Explores the comparative, cultural, and ethical aspects of public policy -Explains primary quantitative-oriented analytical methods employed in policy research -Addresses the qualitative sides of policy analysis -Discusses tools used to refine policy choices -Traces the development of policy analysis in selected national contexts The Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory, Politics, and Methods describes the theoretical debates that have recently defined the field, including the work of postpositivist, interpretivist, and social constructionist scholars. This book also explores the interplay between empirical and normative analysis, acrucial issue running through contemporary debates.

Describing new techniques and novel applications, Handbook of Research Methods in Public Administration, Second Edition demonstrates the use of tools designed to meet the increased complexity of problems in government and non-profit organizations with ever-more rigorous and systematic research. It presents detailed information on conceptualizing, planning, and implementing research projects involving a wide variety of available methodologies. Providing a reference of systematic research methods, this second edition explains how these techniques aid in understanding traditional issues, and reveals how they might be applied to answer emerging theoretical and practical questions.

Following a linear, logical organization, this handbook meets systematic goals and objectives through eight groups of chapters. The first group explains the logic of inquiry and the practical problems of locating existing research. The second group deals with research design and the third examines pitfalls in measurement and data collection. The authors give practical, considered advice in the fourth section to anticipate and solve data management problems. They include numerous illustrations to supplement two separate sections devoted to basic and advanced quantitative analysis. The seventh section covers unique analytical techniques used to gain insight specific to the non-market sector's knotty problems. The final section addresses the impact of research and describes how to overcome illusive, tricky, and sizeable barriers to influence other researchers, decision makers, foundations, and grant making institutions.

With a comprehensive survey of research methods and an examination of their practical andtheoretical application in the past, present, and future, Handbook of Research Methods in Public Administration, Second Edition gives you the tools to make informed decisions.