IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/munifj/doi10.1086-mfj33020061.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Indirect Aid for Uncertain Times: The Use of State Credit Enhancement Programs

Author

Listed:
  • Todd L. Ely

Abstract

In 2011, state and local governments issued nearly $300 billion in long-term debt. Only 5% of that amount was enhanced with private bond insurance, compared to almost half of all debt issued just a few years earlier. The availability of private bond insurance, which is used to lower borrowing costs and improve access to the debt markets, has declined markedly in the aftermath of the credit crisis. Existing state credit enhancement programs provide a low-cost, and increasingly important, public alternative to private bond insurance for governments. This paper provides an overview and detailed inventory of the little-known programs, as well as a consideration of the associated benefits and costs. State credit enhancement programs are not “a free lunch” but, to date, have offered tremendous value for sub-state borrowers with little direct spending by states.

Suggested Citation

  • Todd L. Ely, 2012. "Indirect Aid for Uncertain Times: The Use of State Credit Enhancement Programs," Municipal Finance Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 61-85.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:munifj:doi:10.1086/mfj33020061
    DOI: 10.1086/MFJ33020061
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/MFJ33020061
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/MFJ33020061
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/MFJ33020061?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:munifj:doi:10.1086/mfj33020061. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/MFJ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.