Federal Budget

In new research, Matthias Breuer and Qingkai Dong examine how federal data collection can influence local spending. They examine road surveys, showing that roads included in federal samples are more likely to be funded and those that are not often face funding and safety declines, reflecting a need for improved measurement systems.

Kurt Davis Jr. argues that the U.S. Congress should consider switching from a federal debt ceiling as a nominal value to one fixed as a percentage of GDP. This debt ceiling should, on the one hand, be high enough that the government cannot reasonably cross it, but punitive enough that it disincentivizes profligate spending. This will save the U.S. from the annual political theater that occurs around debt ceiling talks and focus the discussion on the federal budget (and potentially taking revenue and spending decisions to actually control the deficit).