State and local governments seek to save money through fiscal efficiency. One such mechanism widely studied in the literature is through the choice for financial underwriting of debt. The extant literature generally suggests that state and local governments can lower borrowing costs through a competitive method of sale. In a meta-analysis of 418 effects from 97 studies, we find that competitive sales do enjoy a statistically significant reduction in borrowing costs However, these effects are moderated when using key control variables, the use of more recent data, as well as due to measurement and methodological choices. Consequently, despite a large number of studies in this area, more research specific to small borrowers, new and understudied contexts, or those using sophisticated selection and causal methods is needed to understand whether the practical preference for competitive sales should persist.

中文翻译：

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州和地方政府借贷成本的荟萃分析

州和地方政府寻求通过财政效率来节省资金。文献中广泛研究的一种机制是选择债务的财务承销。现有文献普遍表明，州和地方政府可以通过竞争性销售方式降低借贷成本。在对 97 项研究的 418 项效应进行的荟萃分析中，我们发现竞争性销售确实使借贷成本在统计上显着降低，但是，当使用关键控制变量、使用更新的数据以及由于测量和方法选择。因此，尽管在这一领域进行了大量研究，但仍需要针对小额借款人、新的和未充分研究的背景或使用复杂选择和因果方法的研究进行更多研究，以了解对竞争性销售的实际偏好是否应该持续下去。