FINANCIAL INDICATORS AND TRENDS FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: A STATE-BASED POLICY PERSPECTIVE

Recent federal reports, the projected "new" federalism, research in financial and economic trends, and the emerging consensus concerning local government distress have highlighted the fact that no comprehensive or systematic federal, state, or local policies exist to deal with the problems that have been identified. The purpose of this article is to perform a statebased study of financial patterns and trends in local governments that have implications for state policy. Included in the analysis were correlations between constant dollar financial indicators and an instability index for four data points. The results of the analysis and trends suggest that certain consistent patterns which have implications for state policy exist.     

THE ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION OF AMERICA: AN OVERVIEW OF THE ISSUES

This paper presents an overview of the economic issues facing the American economy. Crisis and transformation scenarios are presented and supply-side versus demand-side economic policies are considered as approaches to revitalizing the economy. Issues such as the extent to which centralization is needed, the kinds of trade-offs that will be required, and the various constraints that exist for policy making are discussed.     

The performance of medical malpractice review panels

In this paper we present the results of an empirical study of Arizona's medical malpractice review panels. We compare insurance company claim files data from before and after the implementation of panels to analyze the effects of the panel system. The data indicate that although the frequency and average amount of recovery are not affected by the panel system, the system leads to an increase in the number of disputes seeking formal adjudication, an increase in the cost of the process, and a lengthening of the time within which disputes are resolved.