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作者：Yakita, Akira
作者单位：University of Tsukuba
摘要：Under the golden rule of public finance for public investment with a constant budget deficit/GDP ratio, we show that for the sustainability of government budget deficits there is a threshold of the initial public debt for a given stock of public capital, and that this threshold level of public debt is increasing in the stock of public capital. If the initial public debt is greater than the threshold, the government can no longer sustain budget deficits, while if it is smaller, the government c...
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作者：Doyle, Joseph J., Jr.; Samphantharak, Krislert
作者单位：Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California San Diego
摘要：There are surprisingly few estimates of the effects of sales taxes on retail prices, especially at the firm level. We consider the temporary suspension, and subsequent reinstatement, of the gasoline sales tax in Illinois and Indiana following a price spike in 2000. Earlier laws set the timing of the reinstatements, providing plausibly exogenous changes in the tax rates. Using a unique dataset of daily prices at the gas-station level, 70% of the tax suspension is passed on to consumers in the f...
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作者：Grossman, Gene M.; Helpman, Elhanan
作者单位：Princeton University; Harvard University
摘要：We study budget formation in a model featuring separation of powers. In our model, the legislature designs a budget bill that can include a cap on total spending and earmarked allocations to designated public projects. Each project provides random benefits to one of many interest groups. The legislature can delegate spending decisions to an executive agency that can observe the productivity of all projects before choosing which to fund. However, the ruling coalition in the legislature and the ...
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作者：Vanberg, Christoph
作者单位：Max Planck Society
摘要：Arguably the most important campaign finance regulations in U.S. federal elections are limits imposed on individual campaign contributions. One of the principal arguments in support of these contribution limits has been that they equalize the influence of individual donors and thereby cause candidates' aggregate financial resources to more accurately reflect public support. I construct a formal model to evaluate this argument. The analysis shows that a necessary condition for it to apply is th...
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作者：Alesina, Alberto; Tabellini, Guido
作者单位：Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：Policies are typically chosen by politicians and bureaucrats. This paper investigates first the normative criteria with which to allocate policy tasks to elected policymakers (politicians) or non-elected bureaucrats. Politicians are preferable if there is uncertainty about social preferences and flexibility is valuable, or if policy complementarities and compensation of losers is important. Bureaucrats are preferable if time inconsistency and short-termism is an issue, or if vested interests h...
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作者：Greenberg, David H.; Robins, Philip K.
作者单位：University of Miami
摘要：Benefit-cost analysis is used extensively in the evaluation of social programs. Often, the success or failure of these programs is judged on the basis of whether the calculated net benefits to society are positive or negative. Almost all existing benefit-cost studies of social programs count entire increases in income accruing to participants in a social program as net benefits to society. However, economic theory implies that the conceptually appropriate measure of the impact of a government ...
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作者：Mattozzi, Andrea; Merlo, Antonio
作者单位：California Institute of Technology; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); University of Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania; National Bureau of Economic Research; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR)
摘要：Two main career paths are prevalent among politicians in modem democracies: there are career politicians (i.e., politicians who work in the political sector until retirement), and political careers (i.e., there are politicians who leave politics before retirement and work in the private sector). In this paper, we propose a dynamic equilibrium model of the careers of politicians in an environment with a private sector and a political sector, where individuals are heterogeneous with respect to t...
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作者：Battaglini, Marco; Coate, Stephen
作者单位：Cornell University; Princeton University
摘要：This paper studies Pareto efficient income taxation in an economy with finitely-lived individuals whose income generating abilities evolve according to a two-state Markov process. The study yields three main results. First, when individuals are risk neutral, in any period the only individuals whose earnings are distorted are those who currently are and have always been low ability. In addition, the degree to which these perpetual low ability types have their earnings distorted decreases over t...
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作者：Seidmann, Daniel J.
作者单位：University of Nottingham
摘要：A plurality-rule spatial committee can select an extreme decision if a bare minority of members prefer the opposite extreme decision: the majority who prefer a moderate decision are immobilised by internal divisions. Consequently, a nominator may appoint candidates with the opposite preference ordering so as to build up the bare minority. Our results may explain why Disraeli extended the franchise to skilled male workers in 1867 against centrist opposition; and why an electorate whose preferen...
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作者：Behaghel, Luc; Creon, Bruno; Sedillot, Beatrice
作者单位：INRAE; Paris School of Economics; Institut Polytechnique de Paris; ENSAE Paris
摘要：French firms laying off workers aged 50 and above have to pay a tax to the unemployment insurance system, known as the Delalande tax. We evaluate the impact of this tax on layoffs as well as on hiring, taking advantage of several changes in the measure since its introduction in 1987. A legislative change in 1992 exempted firms from the tax for workers who were hired after age 50. Following this change, the transition rate from unemployment to employment increased significantly for workers over...
