Robert D. Ebel

Robert D. Ebel is a consultant on intergovernmental fiscal relations, fiscal federalism, and state and local finance. For the period 2006-2009 he served as Deputy Chief Financial Officer for Revenue Analysis and Chief Economist for the Washington, DC government. Prior to joining the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, he was Lead Economist for the World Bank Institute’s (WBI) Capacity Building programs on Public Finance. He has served as Executive Director of revenue study commissions for Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Minnesota, and Nevada. Robert has held professorships at the University of Hawai’i, the United States Foreign Service Institute, the University of the District of Columbia (HBCU), and, as an Adjunct/Visiting Professor of Practice with American University, Capital University of Business and Economics (Beijing), Central European University, and New York University Wagner School. His professional honors include that of an elected member of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA); recipient of the Steven D. Gold Award that is jointly presented by the NTA, APPAM and NCSL for an ability to “span with integrity and evenhandedness the interest of scholars, practitioners; and as a member of the West Bank Gaza team, the World Bank President’s Award for Excellence. His publications include Co-Editor and author with Joseph J. Cordes and Jane G. Gravelle, The Encyclopedia of Taxation and Tax Policy, 2nd Ed. Washington: Urban Institute Press, 2005 (3rd edition planned for 2023/4); Co-Editor and co-author with John E. Petersen, The Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012; with Serdar Yilmaz (2020); “Subnational Government, Infrastructure, and the Role of Borrowing and Debt”. In Development Studies in Regional Science, edited by Zhenhua Chen, William M. Bowen, and Dale Whittington. New York: Springer; and, with Francois Vaillancourt (forthcoming 2022), “The Size, Growth, and Composition of Government: Analysis and Evidence for Canada and the United States.” Canadian Tax Journal.