Qingqing Sun 

Welcome! I am a Ph.D. in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD). My research interests center on the intersection of public finance and nonprofit management. My dissertation has received accolades in both fields of public finance and nonprofit management, including the 2023 Michael Curro Award for Best Graduate Student Paper from the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management (ABFM), and the 2023 Felice Davidson Perlmutter Award for Best Theory, Issues, Boundaries Section (TIBS) Conference Paper from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).

Currently, my research is focused on three main themes: 1) why nonprofits use certain debt instruments (e.g., mortgages and municipal bonds) to finance facilities and service expansion as well as the impacts of these debt choices on nonprofits’ borrowing costs; 2) the short-term and long-term impacts of capital investment on nonprofits' financial and programmatic performance; and 3) how do federal and state government regulations of nonprofits affect nonprofits’ spending pattern and their ability to provide public goods. My work has appeared in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law and the Academy of Management Proceedings.  

My dissertation answers why nonprofits face high borrowing costs and default risk when financing land and property with debt and how the strategic use of mortgages, tax-exempt bonds, and private loans can help alleviate those costs. I address this question through three perspectives: the formation of capital structure, the bond issuance process, and tax-exempt bond credit ratings.

On this website, you can find my CV, a summary of my publications and current research projects, and a recent course syllabus. My Google Scholar profile can be accessed here.