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Justin Marlowe

Columnist

Justin Marlowe is a research professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. His research and teaching are focused on public finance, and he has published five books — including the first open-access textbook on public financial management — and more than 100 articles on public capital markets, infrastructure finance, financial disclosure, public financial technology and public-private private partnerships. He is an admitted expert witness in federal and state courts, and has served on technical advisory bodies for the state of Washington, the California state auditor, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the National Academy of Sciences, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and many other public, private and nonprofit organizations. Prior to academia he worked in local government in Michigan. He is a Certified Government Financial Manager and an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and he holds a Ph.D. in political science and public administration from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

We’ve been wary of taxation since the Boston Tea Party. New finance ethics rules will help.
Coordinating commissions have fallen out of favor. It’s time to bring them back.
A decade after the Libor scandal, a new approach to interest rates could help U.S. states and cities -- if they change their thinking.
What's "fair" changes along with the economy.
Fiscal incentives can encourage local governments to consolidate redundant operations.
Government accounting is changing, but we'll still need smart humans in charge.
Marketing is especially important for smaller local governments, and states have a role to play.
The real money isn't in roads and bridges. It's in people and services.
Chief information officers and chief financial officers haven’t always gotten along. That’s not true anymore.
Fiscal equalization offers three lessons in local tax policy and regional prosperity.