The purpose of this web site is to make available publications on local government organization and finance and First Nation taxation and government It also provides a list of other publications by Dr. Bish found in more easily available sources.
Dr. Robert L. Bish is Professor Emeritus, University of Victoria, where he was Professor of Public Administration and Economics from 1981 through 1998. He was also Co-director of the Local Government Institute from its establishment in 1995 through 2002.
Most documents are in pdf. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat reader available you may download it by going to the Adobe Acrobat reader download site. Please note that papers listed in sections one and two that do not provide the opportunity to click to an on-line copy on this or another site are still being put on-line.
Local Government Amalgamations: Discredited Nineteenth-Century Ideals Alive in the Twenty First, CD Howe Institute, Commentary #150, March 2001, 35 pp. After clicking scroll down to 2001 publications to locate.
Local Government Service Production in the Capital Region, Local Government Institute, University of Victoria, April 1999, 43 pp.(LGI Report 5).
Local Government Organization in the Capital Region, Local Government Institute, University of Victoria, October, 1999, 63 pp.(LGI Report 9)
“Local Government Finance Issues in the United States,” LGI Working paper 5, June 2002.
Indian Government Taxes and Services in British Columbia, with Eric Clemens and Hector Topham. Center for Public Sector Studies, University of Victoria, April 1991, 44 pp.
The Public Economy of Metropolitan Areas, Rand McNally/Markham, 1971, 176 pp.
Financing Government (7th Edition), with Harold M. Groves. Complete responsibility for revised edition. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973, 534 pp.
Understanding Urban Government: Metropolitan Reform Reconsidered, with Vincent Ostrom. American Enterprise Institute, 1973, 111 pp.
Economic Principles and Urban Problems, with Robert Kirk. Prentice-Hall, 1974, 199 pp.
Urban Economics and Policy Analysis, with Hugh Nourse. McGraw-Hill, 1975, 435 pp.
Coastal Resource Use: Decisions on Puget Sound, with Robert Warren, Louis Weschler, Peter Harrison, and James Crutchfield. University of Washington Press, 1975, 206 pp.
Governing Puget Sound, MESA Series, University of Washington Sea Grant Program, 1982, 137 pp.
Basic Principles of Political Decentralisation to Local Authorities, Bureau of Economic Policy and Analysis, University of Pretoria, South Africa, 1983, 131 pp.
Il governo locale negli Stati Uniti (Local Government in the United States) with Vincent and Elinor Ostrom. Milano: Edizioni di Comunita, 1984, 296 pp.
Local Government in the United States, with Vincent and Elinor Ostrom. Institute for Contemporary Studies, San Francisco, 1988, 251 pp. (Substantial revision of the Italian language monograph)
Indian Government: Its Meaning in Practice, with Frank Cassidy. Oolichan Books and The Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1989, 186 pp.
Local Government in British Columbia. Union of B.C. Municipalities, 1987, 1990, 3rd edition with Eric G. Clemens, 1999. 180 pp.
"Public Housing: The Magnitude and Distribution of Direct Benefits and Effects on Housing Consumption", Journal of Regional Science, Vol. 9, No. 3 (1969), pp. 425-438.
"Scale and Monopoly Problems in Urban Government Services", with Robert Warren, Urban Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 8 (September 1972), pp. 97-122.
"Allocating Coastal Resources: Trade-Off and Rationing Processes," with Lyle Craine, Mitchell L. Moss and Robert Warren in Bostwick Ketchum, The Waters Edge: Critical Problems of the Coastal Zone, M.I.T. Press, 1972, pp. 212-245.
"Urban Health, Education and Welfare Programs in a Federal System", in Selma J. Mushkin, ed., Services to People: Federal Aids in State Urban Strategies, Public Service Laboratory, Georgetown University, 1974, pp. 127-145.
"Fiscal Equalization Through Court Decisions: Policy Making Without Evidence", in Elinor Ostrom, ed., The Delivery of Urban Services: Outcomes of Change, Sage Urban Affairs Annual Reviews, Vol. 10, 1976, pp. 75-102.
"Environmental Resource Management: Public or Private," in Garrett Hardin and John A. Baden, eds., Managing the ommons, Freeman Press, 1977, pp. 217-228.
"Public Choice Theory for Comparative Research on Urban Service Delivery", Comparative Urban Research, Vol. VII, No. 1 (1979) pp. 18-26.
"Productivity Increasing Arrangements for Producing Government Services: The Role of Contracting Out". Prepared for the Royal Commission on The Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada (Macdonald Commission). Published in Responses to Economic Change, ed. David Laidler, University of Toronto Press, 1986.
"Federalism: A Market Economics Perspective," Cato Journal, Vol 7, No. 2 (Fall 1987).
"Program Evaluation and Contracting Out Government Services", with James C. McDavid, The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, Vol. 3, No. 1 (April-May 1988), pp. 9-23.
"Implementing Aboriginal Self-Government Taxation and Service Responsibility in British Columbia," Canadian Public Administration, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Fall 1996), pp. 451-460.
“Federalist Theory and Polycentricity: Learning from Local Governments,” in Donald P. Racheter and Richard E. Wagner, eds., Limiting Leviathan, Edward Elgar, 1999, pp. 203-220.
“Evolutionary Alternatives for Metropolitan Areas: The Capital Region of British Columbia,” Canadian Journal of Regional Science, Vol 23:1, 2000, 99.73-87.
“The Importance of Prices in Local Government Service Production,” FMI (Financial Institute of Canada)Journal, Vol 14, No. 2 (Winter 2003), pp. 24-25.
Prior to joining the University of Victoria in 1981, Dr. Bish received his A.B. Magna Cum Laude from the University of Southern California (1964) and M.A. (1966) and PhD (1968) in Economics from Indiana University and served departments or schools of economics, public Affairs, public administration and urban studies at the universities of Washington (1968-72), Southern California (1972-76) and Maryland (1976-1981). Dr. Bish was one of nineteen economists at Canadian universities included in Mark Blaug and Paul Sturges, first Who's Who in Economics in1983. The editors selected 1000 economists from 1700 to 1980 world-wide based on the frequency with which their published work is cited in economics and related social science journals. Dr. Bish is included in subsequent editions.
Dr. Bish’s past research and consulting has included, in the United States, The Office of Technology Assessment, US Congress, The US Departments of Commerce, Transportation, Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development; The Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations; the Washington State Legislature; the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority; The Governor's Office, State of California, the National Science Foundation, and in Canada, The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs; The Macdonald Royal Commission; The BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs; The Gitksan-Wet'suwet'en Tribal Council; The Indian Taxation Advisory Board, and various BC government Ministries, local governments, First Nations Governments and incorporation study task forces.
Dr. Bish also was responsible for training municipal officials in local government finance and budgeting as part of an InterAmerican Development Bank project in Guyana, South America in 2001 and 2002.
Dr. Bish can be reached at:
Port Townsend, WA
ph.: 360 774-0830
e-mail: rbish@uvic.ca