City governments deliver a range of services and public infrastructure that are crucial for the health, safety and wellbeing of people—whether they are residents, visitors, or workers and students commuting to their place of business or study. How cities respond to fiscal difficulties matters for their capacity to consistently provide services.

This project examines the fiscal retrenchment and recovery processes in city governments. Using survey data, the project explores the pattern of use of different fiscal tools to respond to a major budget crisis. The fiscal tools available to local governments to address fiscal shocks include personnel-related budget cuts, service-related cuts, revenue-raising responses, efficiency reforms, fund balance and inter-fund transfer, external borrowing, and inter-governmental approaches. To what extent did cities rely on specific tools and what influenced their decisions?

Research under this initiative focuses on the role of organizational decision-making processes, strategy, and other management factors that help shape how governments respond to fiscal stress.

Hong, Minji and Benedict Jimenez (2024) Strategy formulation process and interorganizational collaboration. Public Performance and Management Review. Published online as doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2024.2366238

Altamimi, Hala, Qiaozhen Liu, and Benedict Jimenez. 2023. Not too much, not too little: Centralization, decentralization, and organizational change. Journal ofPublic Administration Research and Theory 33(1): 170-185

Jimenez, Benedict S. (2022) Applying the loss-conflict model of fiscal retrenchment: Understanding city expenditure and revenue responses to a budget crisis. Public Performance and Management Review 45(1): 1-29

Jimenez, Benedict S. (2018) Organizational strategy and the outcomes of fiscal retrenchment in major cities in the United States. International Public Management Journal 21(4): 589-618

Jimenez, Benedict S. (2014) Smart cuts? Strategic planning, performance management and fiscal retrenchment in U.S. cities.Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management. 26(3): 494-515