Abstract
That city governments differ in their legal & fiscal responsibilities has retarded comparative Ur research, especially on debt & noncommon functions. How do we compare municipal governments & their policies if they do not perform the same functions? Several methods & research strategies have been put forth to deal wtih this problem, but no explicit assessment of the strengths & weaknesses of such methods has as yet been completed. Presented is a new methodology for analyzing differences in functional performance among cities. Eleven earlier methods are contrasted with the new one in terms of several criteria. Explored are the ramifications of the new approach for the study of municipal expenditures & fiscal strain.