**2026 Calls for Award Nominations**
The deadline for submission of all award nominations is June 20, 2026.
Michael Curro Student Paper Award
Best Book in Public Budgeting and Finance Award
Aaron Wildavsky Award
The Aaron Wildavsky was established in 1993 as a lifetime achievement award for work in budgeting and financial management in memory of Dr. Aaron Wildavsky. Professor Wildavsky was a pioneering scholar in the fields of government budgeting, public policy, and policy analysis. He is most remembered for his work on the theory and concept of budgetary incrementalism, which was often held in contrast to rational decision approaches to public management and policy outcomes. His academic contributions include 37 books and numerous articles on a wide variety of policy and budgeting topics including budgetary process, policy analysis, political culture, foreign affairs, public administration, strategic choice, and comparative government. His book, Politics of the Budgetary Process, which was first published in 1964, is still one of the most widely read and cited studies of federal budgeting- now in its 5th edition (2003). He spent most of his career at the University of California at Berkeley where he was the founding dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy.
Aaron Wildavsky Award Winners
S. Kenneth Howard Award
The S. Kenneth Howard Award was established in 1986 in memory of S. Kenneth Howard to honor lifetime achievement by a practitioner in the field of budgeting and financial management. Dr. Howard was a faculty member at UNC Chapel Hill and held a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and the Institute of Government. Dr. Howard also played a key role in establishing the University’s Master of Public Administration degree program at UNC.
S. Kenneth Howard Award Winners
Michael Curro Award
The Michael Curro Award for best graduate student paper was established to honor Michael Curro. Graduate students who have written outstanding papers in the field as part of a course, independent study, or other faculty supervised project are eligible. Mr. Curro was an active and engaging member of ABFM; serving on the Public Budgeting and Finance editorial board, ABFM’s executive committee, and the board of directors of Public Financial Publications, Inc. He worked for the GAO in a variety of capacities for over 30 years starting in the regional office of his hometown Cincinnati, Ohio in 1974. Mr. Curro often wrote about budget and finance topics in professional journals and taught classes at Georgetown University, USDA Graduate School, and Central Michigan University. Among other accomplishments, Mr. Curro helped shape and implement the Government Performance and Results Act through the General Accounting Office. His body of work on performance budgeting and the federal budget account structure continue to be important documents with a wide audience.
Michael Curro Award Winners
- 2025 – Marc Plooster, Indiana University, “GASB 68 and the Cost of States’ Debt: The Role of Disclosure Timing and Cost-Sharing Design”
- 2024 – Luis Navarro, Indiana University, “Federal Assistance and Municipal Borrowing: Unpacking the Effects of the CARES Act on Government Liquidity Management.”
- 2023 – Qingqing Sun, University of Maryland, “Are Nonprofits Creditworthy? Financial Determinants of Nonprofit Tax-Exempt Bond Ratings.”
- 2022 – Ruth Winecoft, Indiana University, “The Dodd-Frank Act and Municipal Borrowing Costs: Evidence from Nationwide Data.”
- 2021 – John D. Stavick, Indiana University, “Do State Budget Maneuvers Reduce Future Budget Resiliency? Evidence Following the Great Recession.”
- 2020 – Felipe Lozano Rojas, Indiana University, “How Do Local Government Finances Respond to Opioid Epidemics? Evidence from Hydrocodone Rescheduling.”
- 2019 – Yoon-Jung Choi, Syracuse University, “Property Tax Interaction Among Overlapping Local Jurisdictions: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from School Bond Referenda.”
- 2018 – Sian Mughan, Indiana University, “Budget Deficits and Revenue Extracting Activities in the Criminal Justice System.”
- 2017 – Thomas Luke Spreen, Indiana University, “Bad Medicine? The Effect of Illinois Income Tax Increase on Municipal Borrowing Costs”
- 2016 – Lang (Kate) Yang, Indiana University, “The Impact of State Intervention and Bankruptcy Authorization Laws on Local Government Financial Condition.”
- 2015 – Stephanie Leiser, University of Washington, “The Diffusion of State Business Tax Incentives.”
- 2014 – Jamie Giles, University of Kentucky, Do Municipal Stat Programs Improve Services & Reallocate Resources? Evidence from Louie Stat.”
- 2013 – Jarrad Fjelstad, University of Washington, “Using the Diebold-Li Model to Forecast Municipal Bond Yield Curves.”
- 2012 – Forrest Longman, University of Washington, “Small Town Bond Default and Financial Contagion: Did the Greater Wenatchee Public Facilities District Default Cause Financial Contagion?”
- 2011 – Steven Dana, University of Washington, “Preliminary Investigation of Applied Liquidity Measures to the Municipal Bond Market.”
- 2010 – Whitney B. Afonso, University of Georgia, “State Income Taxes and Military Service Members’ Legal Residency Choices.”
- 2009 – Gao Liu, University of Kentucky, “Do Investors Differentiate among Bond Insurers? Bond Insurers’ Credit Risk and Insured Bond Interest Costs.”
- 2008 – Sarah Arnett, Georgia State University, “Budget Rules and Financial Management Quality: An Empirical Analysis of the U.S. States.”
- 2007 – Robert Nye, University of Kansas, “Total Recall: Did Municipal Bond Investors Anticipate the Effects of California’s Recent Elections?”
- 2006 – Quian (Janey) Wang IV, Indiana University, “An Empirical Analysis of Provincial Tax Performance in China.”
- 2005 – Olha Krupa, Indiana University, “Is There a Reason for Higher Cost Financing?”
- 2004 – Seth Payton, Indiana University, “Property Tax and Local Policy Affect Housing Values.”
- 2003 – Justin Marlowe, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, “Fiscal and Political Determinants of Local Fund Balance Levels.”
- 2002 – Deborah A. Carroll, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, “Conflict of Interests: Poverty, Brownfields and Tax Increment Financing.”
- 2001 – Kyle I. Jen, Michigan State University, “Michigan Tax Expenditures 1990-2000.”
- 2000 – Changhoon Jung, University of Georgia, “Does the Local-Option Sales Tax Provide Tax Relief? The Georgia Case.”
- 1999 – Kara Lindaman, editor on behalf of 12 other class members, University of Kansas, “Budgeting for Neighborhood Realization: Backward and Forward Mapping Performance and Outcomes.”
- 1998 – Mike Gray and Michael West, Willamette University, “Pension Ratio Analysis for Public Employee Retirement Systems.”
- 1997 – Carol McMillan, Wichita State University, “Local Government Debt in Sedgwick County, Kansas, 1985-1995.”
- 1996 – Kevin J. Jackson, University of Missouri at St. Louis, “Tax Increment Financing: An Examination of Theory and Practice.”
- 1995 – Carnegie Mellon University team, Martha Chavez, Deirdre Cheek, Natalie Harder, Carla Hardy, Gwen Moody, Mary Thomas, Yasmin Santiago, and Steffanie Smith, Carnegie Mellon University, “An Analysis of Municipally-Owned Tax Delinquent Properties in Pittsburgh.”
- 1994 – James True, Texas A&M University, “Is the National Budget Controllable?”
- 1993 – Patrick J. Murphy, University of Wisconsin, “The Politics of Budgetary Cross-Cut or Don’t Expect a Peace Dividend in the War on Drugs.”
- 1991 – Willamette Seminar, Willamette University, “Generalized Sales Tax Designs: An Evaluation of Alternatives.”
- 1990 – Brenda D. Eisele (KU Undergrad) and Dennis R.Tuck (Kent State grad), Brenda D. Eisele (University of Kansas, undergraduate student award, “Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Social Equity) and Dennis R. Tuck (Kent State University, graduate student award, “City of Kent, Ohio, Cash Management Strategies”).
- 1989 – Charles Crawford and Linda Gilbert, Willamette University, “Long-Term Growth in K-12 Spending and Private Property Wealth in Oregon: Is There a Mismatch?”
Paul Posner Pracademic Award
The Paul Posner Pracademic Award is presented to honor lifetime achievement for significant contributions made to the field of budgeting and financial management as both a practitioner and an academic. This is not an annual award. It will be made only when an exemplary candidate is nominated and ultimately approved by the Paul Posner Pracademic Award Committee. The award recipient should be an outstanding pracademic (practitioner and scholar) as judged by his or her record of service to and publication in the field over a sustained period of time. Nominations should include a 1-2 page letter outlining the significant accomplishments of the nominee, the nominee’s vitae, and no more than two additional letters of recommendation. A committee will determine the award winner.
The award is named for Paul Posner, the ultimate pracademic. He worked for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for 30 years where he was Managing Director for Strategic Issues. Paul led GAO’s work on the long-term federal budget outlook and emerging challenges for public-sector finances at all levels of government. He was responsible for GAO’s work on performance budgeting and testified numerous times before congressional committees on budget-related issues. After retiring from GAO in 2005, Paul became the Director of the Masters of Public Administration program at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.
Paul Posner Pracademic Award Winners
Scholarly Engagement Award
The Scholarly Engagement Award shall be awarded to the best submission for outstanding public budgeting and/or finance scholarly engagement in the previous calendar year. This should entail an effort or product of scholarship whose primary purpose is public and/or community service and the audience is public servants and practitioners. This award is open to all ABFM members in good standing at academic institutions including tenure or tenure track faculty, adjunct faculty, graduate students, and teaching and research faculty and staff. Only products where there is clear authorship are eligible. The products of scholarly engagement can represent a variety of work including, but not limited to, advising or consulting projects, courses/seminars/workshops, databases, webtools, books or published workbooks, and white papers or reports.
Scholarly Engagement Award Winners
- 2025 – Zachary Mohr
- 2024 – Peter Jones
- 2022 – Justin Marlowe
Best Book Award
The Best Book Award shall be awarded to the best submission for an outstanding public budgeting and finance book or edited volume with a copyright date within the past three years. Award eligibility is limited to books with association members in good standing. The book should be targeted to an academic research audience, and not be a textbook or a practitioner workbook. Preference will be given to books rather than edited volumes.
Best Book Award Winners
- 2025 – Craig Maher, Sungho Park, Bruce McDonald III, and Steven Deller
- 2024 – George M. Guess and James D. Savage
- 2023 – Salvador Espinosa, Christine Martell, and Temirlan Moldogaziev
- 2022 – Elaine Yi Lu and Katherine Willoughby
Burkhead Award
The Burkhead Award is named for Jesse Verlyn Burkhead, who was a Maxwell Professor Emeritus of Economics, Syracuse University. He served as editor of Public Budgeting & Finance from 1982-1988. Public Financial Publications, Inc. (PFP) publishes the academic journal Public Budgeting and Finance. PFP also provides funding and opportunities for education and professional development in public finance. The Board convenes quarterly.
Burkhead Award Winners
- 2025 – “Cutback management: Strategy, blame, attribution and evaluation of government” – Carla Flink and Xiaoyang Xu
- 2024 – “Capital appreciation bonds and the cost of borrowing” – Temirlan Moldogaziev
- 2023 – “What drives program terminations for the federal government?” – Stuart Kasdin and Anthony McCann
- 2022 – “Municipal reliance on fine and fee revenues: How local courts contribute to extractive revenue practices in U.S. cities” – Siân Mughan
- 2021 – “The Influence of Finance Policies on Charter School Supply Decisions in Five States” – Christian Buerger
- 2020 – “Alternative Methods of Experience Rating Unemployment Insurance Employer Taxes” – Michael Miller and Robert Pavosevich
- 2019 – “The Determinants and Opportunity Costs of External Management Fees for State-Administered Pension Plans” – Jeffrey Diebold and Jerrell Coggburn
- 2018 – “Impact of Bankruptcy Eligibility Requirements and Statutory Liens on Borrowing Costs” – Temirlan Moldogaziev, Sharon N. Kioko, and W. Bartley Hildreth
- 2017 – “The Evolving Functions and Organization of Finance Ministries” – Richard Allen, Yasemin Hurcan and Maximilien Queyranne
- 2016 – “Leviathan or Flypaper: Examining the Fungibility of Earmarked Local Sales Taxes for Transportation” – Witney Afonso
- 2015 – “The Two Worlds of Municipal Bonds: Are Lower-Rated Bonds Punished More by Financial Crisis?” – Jun Peng, Ken Kriz, Qiushi Wang
- 2014 – “The Rube Goldberg Machine of Budget Implementation, or Is There a Structural Deficit in the New York City Budget?” – Daniel W. Williams and Joseph Onochie
- 2012 – “Government-wide Financial Statements and Credit Risk” – Craig L. Johnson, Sharon N. Kioko, and W. Bartley Hildreth
- 2011 – “Public Budget Choices and Private Willingness to Pay” – Brandon Koford