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作者：Elton, Edwin J.; Gruber, Martin J.; Blake, Christopher R.
作者单位：New York University; Fordham University
摘要：The choices made by 401 (k) participants are the product of two different decisions: what is offered and what is chosen. While there have been a number of studies of the decisions made by participants in 401 (k) plans, there have been no studies of the adequacy of the full set of choices offered to 401(k) participants. This paper analyzes the adequacy and characteristics of the choices offered to 401(k)-plan participants for over 400 plans. We find that only 53% of the plans offer an adequate ...
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作者：Kaplow, Louis
作者单位：Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：An important result due to Atkinson and Stiglitz (1976) [Atkinson, A.B., Stiglitz, J.E., 1976. The design of tax structure: Direct versus indirect taxation. Journal of Public Economics 6, 55-75.] is that differential commodity taxation is not optimal in the presence of an optimal nonlinear income tax (given weak separability of utility between labor and all consumption goods). This article demonstrates that this conclusion holds regardless of whether the income tax is optimal. In particular, g...
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作者：Cai, Fang; Giles, John; Meng, Xin
作者单位：Michigan State University; Chinese Academy of Sciences
摘要：As population aging becomes more pronounced in the developing world, the uneven implementation of social safety nets raises important questions as to how well traditional family-based mechanisms insure elderly incomes when pension systems fail. Using a unique dataset from a recent household survey conducted in urban China, we find evidence that private transfers respond to low household income of retired workers when income falls below the poverty line. This finding is consistent with an altru...
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作者：Severinov, Sergei
作者单位：Duke University
摘要：This paper explores how bequests affect redistributive fiscal policies. The main premise underlying our approach is that bequests act as a signal of parental affection. It is shown that private transfers in the form of bequests may not offset public transfers to a significant extent, even though such private transfers are altruistically motivated and are strictly positive for all but a negligible set of households. This is notable since these conditions are normally believed to yield a fully o...
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作者：Buccirossi, Paolo; Spagnolo, Giancarlo
作者单位：Stockholm School of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
摘要：We study the consequences of leniency-reduced legal sanctions for wrongdoers who spontaneously self-report to law enforcers-on sequential, bilateral, illegal transactions, such as corruption, manager-auditor collusion, or drug deals. It is known that leniency helps deterring illegal relationships sustained by repeated interaction. Here we find that-when not properly designed-leniency may simultaneously provide an effective governance mechanism for occasional sequential illegal transactions tha...
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作者：Buettner, Thiess; Wildasin, David E.
作者单位：University of Kentucky; University of Munich
摘要：The dynamic fiscal policy adjustment of local jurisdictions is investigated empirically using a panel of more than 1000 U.S. municipalities over a quarter of a century. Distinguishing own-source revenue, grants, expenditures, and debt service, the analysis is carried out using a vector error-correction model which takes account of the intertemporal budget constraint. The results indicate that a large part of the adjustment in response to fiscal imbalances takes place by offsetting changes in f...
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作者：Kleven, Henrik Jacobsen; Kreiner, Claus Thustrup
作者单位：University of Copenhagen
摘要：This paper extends the theory and measurement of the marginal cost of public funds (MCF) to account for labor force participation responses. Our work is motivated by the emerging consensus in the empirical literature that extensive (participation) responses are more important than intensive (hours of work) responses. In the modelling of extensive responses, we argue that it is crucial to account for the presence of non-convexities created by fixed work costs. In a non-convex framework, tax and...
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作者：Hsieh, Chang-Tai; Urquiola, Miguel
作者单位：Columbia University; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
摘要：In 1981, Chile introduced nationwide school choice by providing vouchers to any student wishing to attend private school. As a result, more than 1000 private schools entered the market, and the private enrollment rate increased by 20 percentage points, with greater impacts in larger, more urban, and wealthier communities. We use this differential impact to measure the effects of unrestricted choice on educational outcomes. Using panel data for about 150 municipalities, we find no evidence that...
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作者：Brueckner, Jan K.; Selod, Harris
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Irvine; INRAE; Institut Polytechnique de Paris; ENSAE Paris
摘要：This paper analyzes the political economy of transport-system choice, with the goal of gaining an understanding of the forces involved in this important urban public policy decision. Transport systems pose a continuous trade-off between time and money cost, so that a city can choose a fast system with a high money cost per mile or a slower, cheaper system. The paper compares the socially optimal transport system to the one chosen under the voting process, focusing on both homogeneous and heter...
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作者：McBride, M
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Irvine
摘要：A discrete public good is provided when total contributions exceed the contribution threshold, yet the threshold is often not known with certainty. I show that the relationship between the degree of threshold uncertainty and equilibrium contributions and welfare is not monotonic. For a large class of threshold probability distributions, equilibrium contributions will be higher under increased uncertainty (e.g., a mean-preserving spread) if the public good's value is sufficiently high. Otherwis...
