One of the remaining gaps in the quantitative record of U.S. economic history is detailed information on the fiscal activities of state and local governments. Annual time series on federal revenues and expenditures are available from 1789 on, but similar information on state and local governments is sparse, particularly before 1900. This project closes the statistical gap for nineteen western states by developing for each state annual time-series estimates of state revenues and expenditures and decennial estimates for local revenues and expenditures, supplemented by a series on large cities. These series indicate overall levels of fiscal activity and the sources and uses of funds. State documents, published and unpublished, furnish the basis for complete state level estimates. Local government estimates are based on a sampling procedure. This project should be funded because it creates a unique and invaluable database for U.S. economic history and public finance. The first two stages of the work covered states from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi. This grant completes the database for the entire United States. The data is publicly available through the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research. The project also produces a series of papers summarizing the fiscal history of states in each region of the country and studies on questions of public finance and the role of government in the 19th century.
