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Bonds on the Ballot: What Voters (Don't) Know About Debt Financing and Why It Matters

Shanna Pearson‐Merkowitz et al.

Public Budgeting & Finance2026https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.70014article
ABDC C
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Abstract American subnational governments commonly require voters to approve bond proposals, reflecting historical concerns about legislative shortsightedness. Yet voters need an understanding of how bond financing works to make choices consistent with preferences. Existing literature makes it unclear whether voters have such knowledge. Using original survey data, we find only about half of voters can identify how bonds are financed. An experiment shows that simple cues can change voter preferences for using bonds or taxes. These findings cast doubt on whether bond elections reveal true preferences and suggest there may be better means to prevent poor bond decisions.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.70014

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@article{shanna2026,
  title        = {{Bonds on the Ballot: What Voters (Don't) Know About Debt Financing and Why It Matters}},
  author       = {Shanna Pearson‐Merkowitz et al.},
  journal      = {Public Budgeting & Finance},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.70014},
}

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Bonds on the Ballot: What Voters (Don't) Know About Debt Financing and Why It Matters

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.