Lang (Kate) Yang
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About Lang
Yang's research focuses on public finance and government financial management. Overarching themes in her writings include how to address local fiscal stress, incentives and impediments to government financial transparency, and education finance. In 2023-2024, she serves as a fellow at the Office of Evaluation Sciences in the General Services Administration, helping federal agencies to build and use evidence.
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Publications
Describes the disparity in capital spending across school districts and in the interest rates paid on school debt for financing capital projects. Provides empirical evidence that a low-cost state credit enhancement program can reduce school districts' costs to borrow and mitigate the disparity in capital spending.
Demonstrates that housing prices in a city drop after the state of New York labels the city to be in significant fiscal stress. Illustrates the transparency value of a state's oversight of local government finances but cautions that a stress designation may exacerbate local government fiscal stress.
Provides empirical evidence that cities are more likely to hire women city managers when facing worsening finances, and women managers are more likely to leave the leadership positions than men when city finances fail to improve during their tenure.
Refutes the commonly held but not tested claim that when a local government files for bankruptcy, other localities in the state will be negatively impacted and have to pay higher interest rates on their future debt. Findings inform state policy on whether to authorize for local government access for bankruptcy.