This thesis explores several aspects of state and local governments' finances and its interaction with the real economy. The first chapter explores the question of what the fiscal position of local governments is and how the financial market assesses it. I find that a large share of municipalities operate with a negative net position-akin to a negative book equity position in the corporate context. I find that most of the decline in the fiscal position originates from the accumulation of legacy obligations, i.e. pensions and other post-employment benefits (OPEBs); this is recognized by municipal bond markets through higher credit spreads. While accounting values from the annual comprehensive financial reports are informative, they are based on book valuations which potentially convey limited information about the economic value of assets and liabilities. Thus, I turn to the market valuation of local governments' equity by estimating an stochastic discount factor that matches the valuation of a wide range of assets in the economy to prices future tax and expenditure claims. Using market prices for tax and expenditure claims, and market valuations of liability positions I find that the market values of equity are highly correlated with the book values. The negative equity position-in terms of book and market values-for some local governments suggests the presence of implicit insurance by state and federal governments. In the second chapter I utilize quasi-experimental variation in Connecticut to causally estimate the policy response of local governments and the migration response of residents to a large fiscal shock. I find that local governments adjust tax rates to maintain stable tax revenues; there is no change in public employment levels and limited adjustments of public services. The micro data on people's location further allows me to causally estimate the migration elasticity to a change in property tax rates. I find evidence of inter-state migration in response to an increase in property tax rates; and no statistically significant response of intra-state migration. Detailed property and location choice data reveal the elasticity of migration with regard to the property tax bill. An increase in the property tax bill by ten percent leads to an average increase in the migration propensity by about 1.5%. In the third chapter I explore the contribution of the local fiscal constraint channel on the local economy. I show that the observed general equilibrium response to local labor market shocks contains an economically important amplification effect through local financial constraints. At the center of the local fiscal constraint channel is the housing market. Local governments in the United States receive a median share of 63.13% of own source revenues from property taxes. I show that exogenous shocks to local labor markets affect the housing market and exerts fiscal pressure on local government finances. Local governments-on average-increase property taxes and cut amenities. Both policy responses affect the relative attractiveness of a location which amplifies the initial shock. I estimate a multiplier of 1.7x through this local financial constraint channel for employment.

yes / The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps or IRGC is a multilayered political, ideological, and security institution that has steadily acquired an increasing role in Iran’s economy in recent years. This paper analyses the increasing economic and business involvement of the IRGC in the broader context of Iranian state-society relations in general, and its civil-military dynamics in particular. More specifically, we look at the political and socio-economic processes within which the IRGC operates at the interrelated levels of the state and society. This analysis sets out the framework based on which we examine the IRGC’s increasing power in the course of its engagements and various conflicts in both political and societal arenas, and in particular its economic expansion under Ahmadinejad’s presidency. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of the IRGC’s rise on the economic policy of the new government under President Rouhani. / The full text is unavailable in the repository due to copyright restrictions.

According to Mann, the state infrastructure power is "the institutional capacity of a central state, despotic or not, to penetrate its territories and logistically implement decisions." From the perspective of state-building, this paper investigates the change of the state infrastructure power from the Maoist time to the Post-Mao period with the case study of the Industrial and Commercial Administrative Office (ICAO) in Guang Zhou city. The paper illustrates the following three arguments. / First, different from the perspectives which focus on the change of the authoritarian or communist factors in China, the state-building studies give us fresh perspective to outline the change of the state infrastructure power from the Maoist time to the Post-Mao period. In the case study of the ICAO in Guang Zhou city, the state fell short of fiscal revenue to finance the ICAO. The self-supply funding system of the ICAO hindered the formalization of the ICAO and rendered the ICAO to pursue revenue increase, which led to the arbitrary charges of the market management fee and distorted the function of the ICAO. Since 1990s, the state tried to check the ICAO's orientation of pursuing revenue increase by launching reforms to change the funding system of the ICAO and promoting the institution-building of it. Despite the limitation of the reform measures, the state enhanced its agent-monitoring capacity under the circumstance of disappearance of political movement and ideological bindings. / Second, the state-building effort of the rulers, the shortage of the fiscal revenue and the path-dependence are three outstanding factors which influence the change of the state infrastructure power from the Maoist time to the Post-Mao era. In the case of ICAO, the rulers takes efforts to extend their power to penetrate the society and monitor their agents. In order to achieve the objective of market control, the rulers established the ICAO and tried to enhance the agent-monitoring capacity. The shortage of the fiscal revenue baffled the rulers efforts to widely set up ICAO and restricted the formalization of it. Furthermore, the path dependence impacts on the development of the state infrastructure power. When the self-supply funding system of the ICAO was established, new problems and resistance arose from the funding system prevent the rulers to reform it. / Third, the state infrastructure power influences the relationship between the state and society. The state infrastructure power not only shapes how the ICAO deals with different market subjects, it also works on the coping strategies different market subjects take to protect themselves from the investigation and penalty of the ICAO. By taking the social control capacity and agent-monitoring capacity of the state into consideration, we could better understand the interaction between the ICAO and different market subjects. / 黃冬婭. / Adviser: Shaoguang Wang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: A, page: 3299. / Submitted: October 2007. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-229). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Huang Dongya.

This thesis is an attempt to fill the gap in our knowledge about rural poverty and what it means to be poor. It has grown out of concerns that a lot has been said and written about poverty, yet poor people’s own understanding of their poverty is hardly ever included in policy and programs designed to reduce poverty. The rural poor are particularly marginalised in terms of voice as they are often represented by mere statistical figures. (For complete abstract open document)