Comparing tax expenditures and direct subsidies: the role of legislative committee structure

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dharmapala, D
• 署名单位: Australian National University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(98)00103-0
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 421-454
• 关键词: tax expenditures; subsidies; committees; interest groups; Legislative bargaining

摘要

This paper analyzes the impact of legislative committee structure on policy outcomes, comparing a 'tax committee' (enacting tax expenditures) and a decentralized system of specialized committees (undertaking direct spending). An endogenous commodity taxation framework is combined with models of legislative bargaining and committee voting. The main conclusion is that the tax committee structure gives rise to lower subsidy levels under a wide range of circumstances. However, it is only under a more restrictive set of assumptions that social welfare is higher in the tax committee regime. This theoretical analysis is illustrated by two examples of institutional change in Congress. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.