Areas of knowledge
Local government finance and financial management, local government reform, public policy, public administration and contracting out. A main research interest is the influence of scale, fiscal environment and political factors on local government policy, financial management and effectiveness. In recent years, Kurt has been particularly interested in studying the economic and democratic consequences of the Danish local government reform in 2007.
Methods
Kurt primarily works with registry data at municipal level on municipal economy, size, urbanization and fiscal and social environment. Depending on the purpose of the study, registry data are often combined with survey data and document studies.
Background
Kurt holds a PhD in political science from University of Southern Denmark. He started as a director of research in the former AKF (now part of KORA) in 2010. Prior to that, he worked as a managing director in a private consultancy company working with municipal policy and financial management and as external lecturer at University of Southern Denmark. Kurt has been a director of research at KORA since 2010.