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作者：Caplan, B
作者单位：George Mason University; George Mason University
摘要：The current paper models power-maximizing politicians' behavior subject to imperfect political competition and perfect citizen mobility. It then analyzes the welfare implications of federal and non-federal structures. The model abstracts from both heterogeneous preferences (the most common argument in favor of federalism) and externalities (the most common argument against), showing that even in this simplified setting federalism has important welfare implications. There is one class of equili...
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作者：Fuest, C; Huber, B
作者单位：University of Munich
摘要：This paper studies optimum income taxation in a small open economy where households differ with respect to their endowments with wealth. The government raises taxes on income from labor and wealth and a source tax on capital used in domestic production. To avoid taxes, households may, at some cost, shift capital to labor income and vice versa. The government can only observe income after shifting has taken place. It turns out that the optimal source tax on capital is negative. The optimal inco...
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作者：Strumpf, KS
作者单位：University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
摘要：This paper considers the decision of Pennsylvania communities whether to levy a 1% wage tax. While a simple political economy model suggests this tax should be enacted when many residents are exempted from the tax, the opposite pattern seems to hold. One explanation is that residents may mistrust their government and fear that the new tax monies will be spent unwisely. Several implications of this credibility story are consistent with the data, and non-taxing communities tend to have low credi...
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作者：Gokhale, J; Kotlikoff, LJ; Sefton, J; Weale, M
作者单位：Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Cleveland; Boston University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：This paper develops, calibrates, and simulates a dynamic 88-period OLG model to study the intergenerational transmission of U.S. wealth inequality via bequests. The model features marriage, realistic fertility patterns, random death, assortative mating based on skills, heterogeneous skill endowments, heterogeneous rates of return, skill inheritability, progressive income taxation, and resource annuitization via social security. All bequests arise from imperfect annuitization. Nonetheless, the ...
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作者：Brown, JR
作者单位：Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：This paper examines household decisions about whether or not to annuitize retirement resources. A life-cycle model of consumption, implemented with the use of dynamic programming techniques, is used to construct a utility-based measure of annuity value for individuals and couples in the Health and Retirement Survey. Variation in the calculated 'annuity equivalent wealth' arises from differences in mortality risk, marital status, risk aversion, and the presence of pre-existing annuities such as...
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作者：Hoel, M; Karp, L
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Berkeley; University of Oslo
摘要：We compare taxes and quotas when firms and the regulator have asymmetric information about the slope of firms' abatement costs. Damages are caused by a stock pollutant. We calibrate the model using cost and damage estimates of greenhouse gasses. Taxes dominate quotas, as with additive uncertainty. This model with multiplicative uncertainty allows us to compare expected stock levels under the two policies, and to investigate the importance of stock size and the magnitude of uncertainty on the p...
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作者：Currie, J; Gruber, J
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; National Bureau of Economic Research; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
摘要：We investigate the impact of expanding public health insurance on the medical treatment received by women at childbirth, using Vital Statistics data on every birth in the US over the 1987-1992 period. The effects of insurance status on treatment are identified using the tremendous variation in eligibility for public insurance coverage under the Medicaid program over this period. Among low education mothers who were largely uninsured before being made eligible for Medicaid, eligibility for this...
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作者：Jack, W
作者单位：The World Bank
摘要：The paper examines the nature of health insurance contracts when insurance companies pool high- and low-risk individuals. In a spatial product differentiation model, the normal forces of competition induce quality provision, but selection incentives induce insurers to under-provide quality. To offset selection incentives, the government can reimburse some of the insurers' costs. However, such a subsidy can in some cases reduce quality further, as well as discourage production efficiency. In su...
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作者：Erard, B; Ho, CC
摘要：This paper is about 'ghosts' - individuals who fail to comply with their income tax filing requirements. As their name suggests, the identities and characteristics of these individuals are shrouded in mystery. In this paper we attempt to de-mystify the issues surrounding ghosts and examine their role in the compliance process. We begin by extending a standard model of tax evasion to account for the existence of ghosts. We then examine the empirical significance and policy relevance of our exte...
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作者：Bordignon, M; Minelli, E
作者单位：IUAV University Venice; Catholic University of the Sacred Heart; University of Brescia
摘要：Rules of allocation and redistribution in the public sector are often less contingent on available information than normative theory would suggest. This paper offers a political economy explanation. Under different rules, even if the observable outcomes of policies remain the same, the informational content which can be extracted by these observations is different. Less contingent rules allow citizens to gain more information on politicians and this improved information may be used to better s...
