Alvin Ka
Biographic Data
| ID | 1226243 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alvin Ka |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alvin |
| FAMILY NAME | Ka |
| SIGNATURE | KA A |
| AFFILIATIONS | DePaul University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0181-1289 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 59 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1966 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Money Is Not Enough: The Temporary Impact of Pandemic-Era Aid on American Fiscal Federalism
As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US federal government sent an unprecedented amount of flexible aid to local governments. While some observers saw this aid as representing a fundamental shift in fiscal federalism towards a “politics of repair,” its temporary nature raises questions about its long-lasting impact. Drawing on Peter Hall’s policy paradigm framework, this article argues that while pandemic-era programs adjusted fe…
Local Governments, Pandemic Aid, and Community Violence Intervention
Expenditures on police departments account for significant portions of local government budgets in the United States. Yet activism on police reform and changing views on the causes of violence have called into question law enforcement's role in public safety. While intergovernmental transfers have historically supported traditional policing, the American Rescue Plan Act's Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (CSLFRF) affords cities t…
Using National Data Sources to Compare Subnational Policies: Insights from the American Rescue Plan Act
In federal systems, central governments invariably maintain data on the fiscal activity of subnational jurisdictions. While these datasets have much to offer comparative policy analysts, they can also create misleading impressions of reality. This is in part because official datasets render invisible the politics that shapes subnational governments’ fiscal choices. Using these datasets, the article argues, requires researchers to understand the t…
Uncovering racialized geographies: Investor strategies and the legacy of the 2008 financial crisis in Chicagoland
A vicious cycle: Fiscal intervention, pension underfunding, and instability in (re)making racialized geographies
The 2008 financial crisis had profound impacts on government finances across the United States, including a lasting decrease in public pension funding levels. Today state and local governments in the United States have trillions of dollars in unfunded public pension liabilities, and the financial condition of pension systems has material impacts on borrowing costs, service delivery, and taxation, as well as retirement security. Local governments …
Reimagining geographies of public finance
The study of public finance—the role of government in the economy—has faded in geography as attention to private finance has grown. Disrupting the tendency to fetishize private financial power, this article proposes an expanded conception of public finance that emphasizes its role in shaping geographies of inequality. We conceptualize the relationship between public and private finance as a dynamic interface characterized today by asymmetrical po…
The City Under Covid‐19: Podcasting As Digital Methodology
This critical commentary reflects on a rapidly mobilised international podcast project, in which 25 urban scholars from around the world provided audio recordings about their cities during COVID‐19. New digital tools are increasing the speeds, formats and breadth of the research and communication mediums available to researchers. Voice recorders on mobile phones and digital audio editing on laptops allows researchers to collaborate in new ways, a…
Working with Financial data as a Critical Geographer
In this article I discuss a methodological approach I refer to as "critical financial analysis," which blends critical theory with public finance tools. As geographers and other scholars have documented, there have been profound shifts in urban governance over the last three decades (Harvey 1989; Brenner and Theodore 2005; Hackworth 2007; Whiteside 2018). The squeezing of public budgets and tax restrictions, compounded by the 2007–2009 recession,…
Taking a Risk: Explaining the Use of Complex Debt Finance by the Chicago Public Schools
In the decade leading up to the global crisis of 2007-2008, local governments in the United States used increasingly complex financial structures to underwrite major capital projects. These structures offered potentially lower borrowing costs while also carrying greater financial risk, and in most cases, the bond structures imploded when the crisis hit. Why did some local governments gravitate toward this part of the risk spectrum while others di…
Politics in New York State, 1800-1830
Reimagining geographies of public finance
The study of public finance—the role of government in the economy—has faded in geography as attention to private finance has grown. Disrupting the tendency to fetishize private financial power, this article proposes an expanded conception of public finance that emphasizes its role in shaping geographies of inequality. We conceptualize the relationship between public and private finance as a dynamic interface characterized today by asymmetrical po…
Working with Financial data as a Critical Geographer
In this article I discuss a methodological approach I refer to as "critical financial analysis," which blends critical theory with public finance tools. As geographers and other scholars have documented, there have been profound shifts in urban governance over the last three decades (Harvey 1989; Brenner and Theodore 2005; Hackworth 2007; Whiteside 2018). The squeezing of public budgets and tax restrictions, compounded by the 2007–2009 recession,…
Taking a Risk: Explaining the Use of Complex Debt Finance by the Chicago Public Schools
In the decade leading up to the global crisis of 2007-2008, local governments in the United States used increasingly complex financial structures to underwrite major capital projects. These structures offered potentially lower borrowing costs while also carrying greater financial risk, and in most cases, the bond structures imploded when the crisis hit. Why did some local governments gravitate toward this part of the risk spectrum while others di…
The City Under Covid‐19: Podcasting As Digital Methodology
This critical commentary reflects on a rapidly mobilised international podcast project, in which 25 urban scholars from around the world provided audio recordings about their cities during COVID‐19. New digital tools are increasing the speeds, formats and breadth of the research and communication mediums available to researchers. Voice recorders on mobile phones and digital audio editing on laptops allows researchers to collaborate in new ways, a…
Local Governments, Pandemic Aid, and Community Violence Intervention
Expenditures on police departments account for significant portions of local government budgets in the United States. Yet activism on police reform and changing views on the causes of violence have called into question law enforcement's role in public safety. While intergovernmental transfers have historically supported traditional policing, the American Rescue Plan Act's Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (CSLFRF) affords cities t…
Using National Data Sources to Compare Subnational Policies: Insights from the American Rescue Plan Act
In federal systems, central governments invariably maintain data on the fiscal activity of subnational jurisdictions. While these datasets have much to offer comparative policy analysts, they can also create misleading impressions of reality. This is in part because official datasets render invisible the politics that shapes subnational governments’ fiscal choices. Using these datasets, the article argues, requires researchers to understand the t…
A vicious cycle: Fiscal intervention, pension underfunding, and instability in (re)making racialized geographies
The 2008 financial crisis had profound impacts on government finances across the United States, including a lasting decrease in public pension funding levels. Today state and local governments in the United States have trillions of dollars in unfunded public pension liabilities, and the financial condition of pension systems has material impacts on borrowing costs, service delivery, and taxation, as well as retirement security. Local governments …
Money Is Not Enough: The Temporary Impact of Pandemic-Era Aid on American Fiscal Federalism
As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US federal government sent an unprecedented amount of flexible aid to local governments. While some observers saw this aid as representing a fundamental shift in fiscal federalism towards a “politics of repair,” its temporary nature raises questions about its long-lasting impact. Drawing on Peter Hall’s policy paradigm framework, this article argues that while pandemic-era programs adjusted fe…
Uncovering racialized geographies: Investor strategies and the legacy of the 2008 financial crisis in Chicagoland
Politics in New York State, 1800-1830
Taking a Risk: Explaining the Use of Complex Debt Finance by the Chicago Public Schools
In the decade leading up to the global crisis of 2007-2008, local governments in the United States used increasingly complex financial structures to underwrite major capital projects. These structures offered potentially lower borrowing costs while also carrying greater financial risk, and in most cases, the bond structures imploded when the crisis hit. Why did some local governments gravitate toward this part of the risk spectrum while others di…
The City Under Covid‐19: Podcasting As Digital Methodology
This critical commentary reflects on a rapidly mobilised international podcast project, in which 25 urban scholars from around the world provided audio recordings about their cities during COVID‐19. New digital tools are increasing the speeds, formats and breadth of the research and communication mediums available to researchers. Voice recorders on mobile phones and digital audio editing on laptops allows researchers to collaborate in new ways, a…
Working with Financial data as a Critical Geographer
In this article I discuss a methodological approach I refer to as "critical financial analysis," which blends critical theory with public finance tools. As geographers and other scholars have documented, there have been profound shifts in urban governance over the last three decades (Harvey 1989; Brenner and Theodore 2005; Hackworth 2007; Whiteside 2018). The squeezing of public budgets and tax restrictions, compounded by the 2007–2009 recession,…
Reimagining geographies of public finance
The study of public finance—the role of government in the economy—has faded in geography as attention to private finance has grown. Disrupting the tendency to fetishize private financial power, this article proposes an expanded conception of public finance that emphasizes its role in shaping geographies of inequality. We conceptualize the relationship between public and private finance as a dynamic interface characterized today by asymmetrical po…
A vicious cycle: Fiscal intervention, pension underfunding, and instability in (re)making racialized geographies
The 2008 financial crisis had profound impacts on government finances across the United States, including a lasting decrease in public pension funding levels. Today state and local governments in the United States have trillions of dollars in unfunded public pension liabilities, and the financial condition of pension systems has material impacts on borrowing costs, service delivery, and taxation, as well as retirement security. Local governments …
Using National Data Sources to Compare Subnational Policies: Insights from the American Rescue Plan Act
In federal systems, central governments invariably maintain data on the fiscal activity of subnational jurisdictions. While these datasets have much to offer comparative policy analysts, they can also create misleading impressions of reality. This is in part because official datasets render invisible the politics that shapes subnational governments’ fiscal choices. Using these datasets, the article argues, requires researchers to understand the t…
Uncovering racialized geographies: Investor strategies and the legacy of the 2008 financial crisis in Chicagoland
Local Governments, Pandemic Aid, and Community Violence Intervention
Expenditures on police departments account for significant portions of local government budgets in the United States. Yet activism on police reform and changing views on the causes of violence have called into question law enforcement's role in public safety. While intergovernmental transfers have historically supported traditional policing, the American Rescue Plan Act's Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (CSLFRF) affords cities t…
Money Is Not Enough: The Temporary Impact of Pandemic-Era Aid on American Fiscal Federalism
As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US federal government sent an unprecedented amount of flexible aid to local governments. While some observers saw this aid as representing a fundamental shift in fiscal federalism towards a “politics of repair,” its temporary nature raises questions about its long-lasting impact. Drawing on Peter Hall’s policy paradigm framework, this article argues that while pandemic-era programs adjusted fe…
Economics (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Finance (5 works) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Public finance (3 works) · Computer Science (2 works) · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 (2 works) · Economic growth (2 works) · Finance (2 works)