NONMETROPOLITAN FISCAL INDICATORS: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Fiscal indicators are important to rural development because they identify the nature and severity of local government fiscal stress in nonmetropolitan areas. This report discusses the state of the art of rural fiscal indicators by comparing rural and urban indicator studies. Although they have certain fundamental characteristics in common, rural and urban studies emphasize different types of fiscal difficulties. Substantial data and statistical problems limit rural fiscal indicator research. Nevertheless, rural fiscal studies appear to be catching up to the level of urban fiscal indicator analysis