

Upcoming Event
8:45 am - 6:30 pm EDT
8:00 am - 12:15 pm EDT
1777 F St. NW
Washington, DC
20006
The annual Municipal Finance Conference brings together academics, practitioners, issuers, and regulators to discuss recent research on municipal capital markets and state and local fiscal issues. The conference is a joint venture of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution, the Rosenberg Institute of Global Finance at Brandeis International Business School, the Mitch Daniels School of Business at Purdue University, the Harris School of Public Policy at University of Chicago, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at University of Texas at Austin. The 2025 conference will primarily be held in person, with livestream options for remote viewers, on July 22 and 23 at 1777 F St. NW.
*Draft agenda can be found below. The deadline to register for in-person attendance is July 12. Drop-ins will NOT be allowed. This event is free of charge.
8:45 am - 9:15 am
9:15 am - 9:20 am
9:20 am - 10:30 am
“Assessing Assessors”
Authors: Huaizhi Chen (University of Notre Dame) and Lauren Cohen (Harvard Business School)
“Do State and Local Governments Offer Competitive Compensation?”
Authors: Byron Lutz (Federal Reserve Board), David Ratner (Federal Reserve Board), and Louise Sheiner (The Brookings Institution)
10:30 am - 10:45 am
10:45 am - 11:55 am
“A Comparison of Transaction Costs for Municipal Securities and Other Fixed-Income Securities”
Authors: Nicholas Ostroy and Simon Wu (Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board)
“Can Machine Learning Algorithms Better Help Predict Fiscal Stress in Local Governments?”
Authors: Can Chen (Georgia State University), Chaowang Ren (Georgia State University), Yilun Zha (Georgia Institute of Technology), and Yuxiang Zhao (Georgia Institute of Technology)
11:55 am - 12:45 pm
12:45 pm - 1:45 pm
Panelists: Kirsten Chalke (Jefferies), Baye Larsen (Moody’s Investors Service), Alexander Zaman (Morgan Stanley), and Ben Zou (Purdue University)
Moderator
1:45 pm - 2:55 pm
“Pricing Climate Risks: Evidence from Wildfires and Municipal Bonds”
Authors: Woongchan Jeon, Lint Barrage, and Kieran James Walsh (ETH Zurich)
“Up in Smoke: The Impact of Wildfire Pollution on Healthcare Municipal Finance”
Authors: Nitzan Tzur Ilan (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas), Luis Lopez (University of Illinois at Chicago), Dermot Murphy (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Sean Wilkoff (University of Nevada, Reno)
2:55 pm - 3:10 pm
3:10 pm - 4:20 pm
“Rising Water, Lowering Tax: The Impact of Hurricane Sandy on Property Tax Assessment in New York City”
Authors: Wei Guo (RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment, Italy), Yilin Hou (Syracuse University), Yusun Kim (Seoul National University), and Qing Miao (Rochester Institute of Technology)
“Navigating Structural Change: Evidence from Municipal Finances and Bond Market Pricing During the Coal Transition”
Authors: Marcelo Ochoa and Andreas Rapp (Federal Reserve Board)
4:20 pm - 5:20 pm
Panelists: Steve Adler (Former Mayor of Austin, TX), Cavalier Johnson (Mayor of Milwaukee, WI), and Christina Muryn (Mayor of Findlay, OH)
Moderator
5:20 pm - 6:30 pm
8:00 am - 8:30 am
8:30 am - 8:35 am
8:35 am - 9:45 am
“Dealer Quid Pro Quo in the Municipal Bond Market”
Authors: Casey Dougal (Florida State University), Daniel Rettl (University of Georgia), and Vas Yakimenko (University of Georgia)
“Financial Innovation, Investor ESG Preferences, and the Cost of Public Debt”
Authors: Daniel Garrett (University of Pennsylvania Wharton School), Brian Gibbons (Oregon State University), and Mahdi Shahrabi (University of Pennsylvania)
9:45 am - 10:00 am
10:00 am - 11:10 am
“Unauthorized Immigration and Local Government Finances”
Authors: Kimberly Cornaggia (Pennsylvania State University), Jess Cornaggia (Pennsylvania State University), and Ryan Israelsen (Michigan State University)
“Municipal Finance and Labor Mobility”
Authors: Pengjie Gao (University of Notre Dame) and Xiaodan Gao (Renmin University of China)
11:10 am - 12:10 pm
Panelists: Mark Becker (Association of Public and Land-grant Universities), Dan Hartman (PFM), and Christen Linke Young (The Brookings Institution)
Moderator
12:10 pm - 12:15 pm
Zaria Roller, Tara Watson
May 21, 2025
David Wessel
May 20, 2025
William G. Gale, Samuel I. Thorpe
May 20, 2025