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How can we use municipal finance techniques to improve government efficiency?

The Center for Municipal Finance (CMF) enables students and faculty to engage the major financial issues of the day facing state and local governments in the United States and around the globe. Some of the topical and enduring issues of municipal finance include financing infrastructure, the use of municipal bonds, privatization, pension liabilities and the efficacy of reform, tax base adequacy, and more.

“We need to rethink the practices and techniques of contemporary municipal finance to provide government services more efficiently and to manage pressing problems related to the public sector.” Harris Professor Christopher Berry.

Visit munifinance.uchicago.edu to learn more about the Center for Municipal Finance.

Certificate in Municipal Finance

Prepare for careers in local and state governments, and private-sector financial and consulting firms. 

Gain in-depth expertise in the process, politics and economics of public revenue and expenditure decisions. Learn the practices and techniques of modern financial administration, and the operation of the municipal securities market.

Learn more about the Certificate in Municipal Finance

Christopher Berry

William J. and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor; Director, Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation

Christopher Berry

Christopher R. Berry is the William J. and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the College. He is the academic director of the Center for Municipal Finance. He studies metropolitan governance and the politics of public finance.
Associate Professor Chris Berry
In the News

Associate Professor Chris Berry on the Proliferation of Special Districts in the U.S.

Special districts cause those who live in them to pay higher taxes, but few people know how the districts affect their lives.