Evidence of confusion in intermediate accounting textbooks regarding the annual percentage rate (APR) and annual effective rate (AER) is presented. The APR and AER are briefly discussed in the context of a note payable and correct formulas for computing each is provided. Representative examples of the types of confusion that we found is presented…

One distinction between the markets for corporate and municipal bonds involves institutional constraints that apply to some municipal bond issues. This research focuses on how public finance institutions, in particular explicit debt limits and referenda requirements, affect the borrowing cost of individual school district bond issues. The…

Asserting that school district officials facing the need of extensive capital expenditures must analyze all sources of funding, this paper focuses on the predominant local funding mechanism of the school district bond issue. It presents a bond rating model with three separate stages that relate to the different choices facing a school district…

The history of state government debt in North Dakota can be divided into three 30-year periods which should be interpreted in terms of the political, social, and economic conditions of each period. The early statehood period of 1889-1918 began with the use of debt to construct facilities necessary to carry out the normal functions of state…

The differential interest costs to rural governments associated with borrowing in the tax-exempt bond market is a function of the advantageous position of several large partially rural counties and the dominance of school district borrowing in rural communities, rather than a disadvantage of predominantly rural governments. This conclusion is the…