The Research Developments and Trend of Municipal Bonds:

A Bibliometric Analysis

BENNY HUTAHAYAN, MOH. FADLI, SATRIA AMIPUTRA, REKA DEWANTARA

Faculty of Law,

Brawijaya University,

MT. Haryono Street, Malang City,

INDONESIA

future studies in Indonesia. There are many studies on municipal bonds, but there are still few studies that map

the topic of municipal bonds with a bibliometric approach with the help of R-Biblioshiny and VOSviewer to

get meaningful and valuable results. That is the novelty of this research.

Key-Words: - Bibliometrics, Indonesia, Municipal Bonds, Research Development, Trend

Received: December 15, 2022. Revised: May 11, 2023. Accepted: May 26, 2023. Published: June 6, 2023.

1 Introduction

by an economic crisis. The impediment of the

economy in countries impacts the inhibition of

economic development in the regions. Fiscal

decentralization is a strategic and popular

development policy, [1]. Fiscal decentralization is a

strategic and popular development policy. Fiscal

decentralization is realized by giving authority to

lower levels of government.

create an equitable distribution of economic

ensure the implementation of minimum public

services, in each region to encourage economic

growth and improve people's welfare, [2,3]. The

Regional Government is given financial resources to

carry out government affairs which the authority of

the Regional Government. Fiscal decentralization

issuing municipal bonds, high costs, and the

possibility that local governments cannot/fail to pay

municipal bonds (default). Local government can

finance investment activities in the public sector,

which are the affairs of local governments and can

provide income and benefits to the community

based on applicable laws and regulations. Some of

the public activities that municipal bonds can

finance are: (i) drinking water services; (ii) waste

and waste management; (iii) transportation; (iv)

hospital; (v) traditional markets; (vi) shopping areas;

(vii) entertainment centers; (viii) tourism and nature

fiscal decentralization, the Indonesian local

governments are still working hard in handling and

investing the municipal bonds, [7].

context, the term regional bonds are not a common

name; instead, municipal bonds. As a result, this

review adopts the term municipal bonds as it is

generally accepted and recognized in the literature.

Several previous studies with the theme of

municipal bonds have been carried out, some of

municipal bond mapping with a bibliometric

approach with the help of R-Biblioshiny and

VOSviewer to obtain meaningful and valuable

results.

2 Related Works

Research on bibliometrics often has many terms,

such as scientometric, traditional literature review,

systematic review, or bibliometric analysis.

some fundamental protocols in the review process,

[17]. Bibliometric analysis is a quantitative analysis

bibliometric analysis are from national or

international databases in the form of scientific

writings (books, conference papers, journals, etc.),

analysis in this study. The five steps consist of the

following:

Table 1. The term “Municipal Bonds” appears for the first time in journals

place is occupied by Financial Review, which

publishes 15 documents. In third place is the Journal

of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, with 13

indexed to Scopus Q2. The scope of the journal

consists of government budgeting and finance.

Public Budgeting and Finance publishes a lot of

research on municipal bonds because municipal

bonds are included in one of the research scopes of

the journal, namely government budgeting and

finance.

relevant to municipal bonds is Financial Review.

Financial Review is also one of the journals with the

bonds is the Journal of Financial and Quantitative

Analysis. Cambridge University Press publishes the

3.1.2 Who are the Prolific Authors based on the

Number of Publications per Year (RQ2)

Figure 3 shows 20 authors who were productive in

authors were published in journals that year. The

bluer the circle, the more often the author's journal

is used as a citation. Figure 3 shows that writer

Cebula, R.J. is the number one most active and

prolific writer. They are followed by Kalotay, A, in

the second position, and Liu, G, in the third

position. Cebula, R.J. is the number one most active

and prolific writer. They are followed by Kalotay,

A, in second place, and Liu, G, in third.

producing two journals; in 2016, producing one

journal; in 2017, producing two journals; in 2018,

3.1.3 Which Institutions have Contributed the

Most to the Research of Municipal Bonds (RQ3)

Figure 4 shows the most relevant affiliations in

municipal bonds journals, with 19 journals. The

second position is occupied by Virginia

Commonwealth University, with seventeen journals.

The third position is occupied by Jacksonville

University, with ten journals.

are Painter, M., Adelino, M., Cunha, I., Ferreira,

M.A., Denison, D.V., Hackbart, M., and Moody,

M.J. Then several authors from Virginia

Commonwealth University are Daniels, K.N.,

municipal bonds journals. The University of

Kentucky provides more than 200 majors. Of the

Interestingly, 19 of the top 20 most relevant

3.1.4 Which Countries of the Authors

Contributed the Most to the Research of

Municipal Bonds (RQ4)

indices. The blue graph shows journal publications

written by authors from the same country (a single

country), while the red chart shows journal

publications from different countries (multiple

countries).

most frequently affiliated country, with 203 journals

divided into 189 single-country journals and 14

journals with several countries. They are followed

by China, with ten journals divided into seven

and active share,” which was researched by Gurwitz

et al., [20]. This journal examines the performance

of US open-ended municipal bond mutual funds that

were actively managed between 1999 and 2020.

Furthermore, one of the papers with authors from

China is “The price of political polarization:

Fig. 5: Corresponding Author's Country

3.1.5 Which Countries are Cited Most in

Municipal Bonds Research Publications (RQ5)

Figure 6 shows the frequency of most cited

because it has been cited 105 times, and finally,

Canada and the United Kingdom because it has been

cited 73 times. Meanwhile, the countries that have

never been quoted in the municipal bonds journal

are Poland and Slovenia.

Cebula's journal entitled "An exploratory analysis of

the impact of budget deficits and other factors on

the ex-post real interest rate yield on tax-free

municipal bonds in the United States", [22]. This

belonging to Cestau et al. with the title "Municipal

bond markets", [23]. This study aims to understand

optimal market design and the impact of post-crisis

regulation, sustainability, and financial technology.

researchers who wish to research municipal bonds.

Researchers will check the author's background to

the University of Kentucky ranks first. This is

supported by the many majors related to economics,

finance, and administration. Suppose other

researchers want to write a municipal bonds journal.

In that case, they can read Cebula R.J's writings

because he is the most prolific writer, so Cebula

R.J's works follow the development of municipal

bonds from time to time. In addition, journals from

University of Kentucky researchers can also be used

as references because many of his writings discuss

bonds, [42]. This is indicated by the high

participation of the United States population to

become investors in the United States capital

market. One of the factors that encourage

Americans to believe in investing is strict

regulations. One of the investments made by the

community is the purchase of municipal bonds. In

addition, the United States has a history of being

able to repay its debts to bondholders.

municipal bonds, this model helps measure the risk

of issuing municipal bonds.

trends from year to year. The word "debt" is a trend

journal are Spreen & Gerrish in 2022 with the title

"Taxes and tax-exempt bonds: A literature review",

municipal bonds research is Public

municipal bonds research is the University

of Kentucky.

municipal bonds research are Jarrow RA, in

1997, entitled "A Markov Model for the

Term Structure of Credit Risk Spreads."

Jarrow's (1997) research has been cited 671

times.

research are United States, Financial

Management, and Investment.

bonds that have yet to exist in recent years. This

study's data were sourced from Scopus, and

scientific writings were limited to journals and only

in English. This can be a limitation of this research

so that further research can use data from other

sources such as ScienceDirect, Wiley online library,

springer, and web of science. In addition, further

researchers can add journal boundaries that will be

used in the bibliometric analysis. From the results of

the bibliometric analysis, readers or even

References:

[1] Bahl R., Fiscal Decentralization As

[3] Hastuti, P., Fiscal decentralization and political

regional autonomy in Indonesia, National

Symposium on State Finance, Vol.1, No.1,

2018, pp.784-799.

provincial government), Journal of RAK

(Financial Accounting Research), Vol.1, No.1,

2016, pp.61-74, https://doi.org/10.31002/

rak.v1i1.66

Government subsidy strategy for public-