Research on Municipal Fiscal Health and Land Policies
Submission deadline: January 29, 2024 | 11:59PM
This RFP will open on November 15, 2023.
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy invites proposals for original research that can be applied to address the challenge of promoting the fiscal health of municipal governments in a range of contexts and institutional settings across the world. We are particularly interested in research that explores the ways sound urban planning, land-based taxation, and economic development combine with disciplined financial management to promote prosperous, sustainable, equitable, and fiscally healthy communities.
Research proposed should examine some of the most pressing questions that local officials around the world are confronting in the fiscal policy arena, with an emphasis on the implications for local land policy and planning decisions.
Citizens across the world often rely on local governments to supply the public goods and services that define their quality of life. The provision of these goods and services entails critical investments in infrastructure—such as water and wastewater systems—that promote public health, or investments— such as transport systems and public education—that foster economic performance. Preparing for a future of urban expansion, population growth, and climate change requires strengthening the fiscal capacity of local governments. Yet many local governments across the world experience considerable fiscal stress due to diminishing revenues, rising costs of providing public goods and services, mounting obligations, and increasing responsibilities imposed by higher-level governments and demands from local citizens.
In addition, recent global trends, like changes in consumer preferences triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic or the reshoring of industries impacted by global supply-chain disruptions, are affecting the fiscal stability of localities for which policy implications may not be yet fully understood. As we navigate through these uncertainties and their effects on property values, local tax bases, and residential affordability, this RFP seeks to examine some of the most pressing questions fiscal policy officials around the world are confronting, with an emphasis on the implications for local land policy and planning decisions.