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Report
Pay with Promises or Pay as You Go? Lessons from the Death Spiral of Detroit
As part of compensation, municipal employees typically receive promises of future benefits. Motivated by the recent bankruptcy of Detroit, we develop a model of the equilibrium size of a city and use it to analyze how pay-with-promises schemes interact with city growth. The paper examines the circumstances under which a death spiral arises, where cutbacks of city services and increases in taxes lead to an exodus of residents, compounding financial distress. The model is put to work to analyze issues such as the welfare effects of having cities absorb pension risk and how unions affect the ...
Journal Article
Resource Utilization among Black Small Business Owners in Detroit: Results from a Questionnaire
One of the most important ways for small businesses to access capital is through connections to resource networks. Business networks are the set of arrangements and information platforms that business owners use to increase exposure and sales, gain knowledge of their markets, develop financial management skills, and familiarize themselves with sources of financing. Networks can also connect people to other service providers, such as nonprofit organizations and professionals that support business owners through technical and financial training, referrals, legal services and procurement ...
Newsletter
After Detroit: How Will Illinois and Its Communities Respond?
Detroit?s bankruptcy filing has highlighted fiscal pressures being experienced by communities across the nation, including Chicago. Problems such as flat or declining property tax revenues, underfunded public pensions, and reduced state support are straining local government operations. To investigate how municipalities are adjusting to fiscal stress, the Civic Federation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago held a forum on April 23, 2014, that brought together over 140 participants.
Journal Article
Detroit Tackles the Issue of Blight
Detroit?s population has been in decline for decades and this trend is expected to continue. The Southeast Michigan Council of Government?s (SEMCOG) forecasts for the city predict that the population will fall from the 2010 Census figure of 714,000 to 610,000 by 2030?far from the city?s peak population of over 1.8 million in the early 1950s.
Journal Article
Detroit’s Proposed Community Benefits Ordinance
The Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) model was created in the late 1990s as a tool to ensure that neighborhood residents would benefit from economic development projects, which are often heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars. A CBA is a project-specific agreement between a developer and a broad community coalition that details the project?s contributions to the community and ensures community support for the project. Properly structured CBAs are legally binding and directly enforceable by the signatories. According to The Partnership for Working Families, the Community Benefits Model works ...