James Tatum III’s article on Central Falls, Rhode Island, is his second journal publication this year.

MPA student James Tatum III wrote "Central Falls' Bankruptcy and the Principle of Shared Pain," published earlier this fall in the peer-reviewed journal Public Finance and Management. The article examines the method used to distribute losses in Central Falls' case, and considers the effects of special protections for bondholders on both the bondholders themselves and other parties to municipal bankruptcy.

Earlier this year, Tatum, who is the 2016-17 Thompson Scholar at the Maxwell School, wrote a detailed analysis of Puerto Rico’s financial insolvency that appeared in the Harvard Journal on Legislation; the article is titled “The Debt is Not Payable.”

Tatum, a graduate of Eastern Michigan University in political science, has completed research projects centered around public finance, veteran’s affairs, municipal bankruptcy, and public solvency. He has been published also in Business & Bankruptcy Law Journal. Tatum hopes to establish a career in economic development and capital asset management for local governments where his expertise can help financially distressed cities recover and prosper.