American University's School of Public Affairs in Washington D.C. has announced the establishment of its newest research center, the Center for Public Finance Research (CPFR). Led by top scholars from the School of Public Affairs and the D.C. policy community, the center offers research and education in public budgeting and finance, public financial management, public economics, and benefit-cost analysis at the local, regional, national, and international levels.

CPFR scholars, leading economic experts, are also available to comment on the current economic crisis, stimulus legislation, and the global economy.

Codirected by George Guess and Daniel Mullins, the CPFR will provide scholars from the policy community with a forum to exchange ideas in an academic setting and allow the establishment of teams of academic researchers across the nation. Those teams will perform and disseminate the findings of sponsored research, provide international technical assistance, and deliver workshops and training programs.

Guess, who led or served on many World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) public expenditure missions, has worked for more than 20 years providing technical assistance and training to strengthen and reform central and local government financial management systems. Mullins, an expert on fiscal reform and state and local fiscal structure, has done extensive work with the World Bank and United States Agency for International Development on budgetary, fiscal, intergovernmental, and institutional reforms and has researched extensively state and local fiscal systems, intergovernmental finance, fiscal implications of population and demographic change, budgeting process and practices, economic development strategies, and the spatial and economic structure of urban areas. He has city management experience and is also managing editor of Public Budgeting and Finance.

They are joined by research faculty Robert Carroll, the Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis and a former senior economist on the Bush administration's Council of Economic Advisers, and Rene W. Aubourg, a former Haiti central bank executive with more than 10 years of experience in macroeconomic policy management and poverty reduction. Aubourg is also current IMF Institute consultant on Francophone Sub-Sahara Africa.

Ranked among the top 10 schools of its kind, American University's School of Public Affairs offers public affairs education on the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels. The school is also home to research centers and institutes in the fields of political science, public administration, public policy and justice. American University's School of Public Affairs is the only school of its kind with three accredited graduate degrees: MPA, MPP, and Executive MPA. Graduates of the school are active in global policy legislation, advocacy, and in the nonprofit and private sectors.