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Breaking The Promise: The Burden Of Unfunded Liabilities On Future Generations, Thomas Savidge

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

This paper discusses the trillions of dollars in government debt accumulated by state governments as well as the costs of debt on future generations. It examines unfunded pension liabilities, unfunded other post-employment benefit (OPEB) liabilities, as well as state bonded obligations and the crowding out effect of public debt onto state budgets. The paper also discusses opportunities for reform that can help alleviate the debt burden on future generations. Data are collected from state annual comprehensive financial reports (ACFRs) as well as public pension and OPEB actuarial valuations.

Essays On Disability And The Labour Market, Robert Geoffrey Millard

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My dissertation consists of three chapters about the effects of disability and disability policy.

The second chapter analyzes the variation in labour market outcomes across disabilities by representing disability as a bundle of characteristics. Rich with information on the characteristics of a disabling condition, I use the Participation and Activity Limitation Survey to compare the relative importance of each {characteristic} and their interactions on employment, wages, hours worked, and annual employment income. The disability {characteristics} include the type of activity limitation, number of limitations, timing of onset, severity, and persistence. I find substantial cross-sectional variation in labour supply, wages, and …

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2022, Michael W. Clark, James P. Ziliak, Simon Sheather

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

This report is one of the important ways that the Center for Business and Economic Research fulfills its mission to examine various aspects of Kentucky’s economy as directed by the Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS 164.738). The analysis and data presented here cover a variety of topics that range from a discussion of Kentucky’s current economic climate to a broad presentation of factors affecting the economy.

The report covers numerous dimensions of Kentucky’s economy including the effects of COVID-19. As the pandemic approaches its third year, COVID-19 continues to dominate the economic narrative. Many aspects of the economy have improved substantially …

Windfall Payment Savings: An Examination Of Act 13 Disbursements In Pennsylvania, Corey Young

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

State and local governments occasionally receive positive exogenous payments or windfalls that have a significant impact on their budgets. However, few works examine how budget-makers allocate such payments or if they are consumed in a manner consistent with other revenue streams. Prior research suggests that multiple factors, including the size of a windfall payment, impact how much of the funds are saved and spent. Using data from the Act 13 Unconventional Natural Gas Impact Fee in Pennsylvania, this study examines the relationship between windfall payment size and savings rates between 2011 and 2019. The results of the study indicate that …

Analyzing The Interplay Between Public Pension Finances And Government Finances: Lessons From Linking An Economic Model To A Pension Fund Model, Yimeng Yin, Donald Boyd

Public Administration and Policy Faculty Scholarship

Public pension funds invest in stock, bonds, and other assets in an effort to keep the costs to governments of funding pensions low. Researchers have examined the investment-related risks to public pension funds, to the governments that contribute to them, and to stakeholders in pension funds and governments, using stochastic simulation models of pension fund finances.

These models generally use simple investment return assumptions, such as that returns are drawn from a normal distribution, are independent from year to year, and are not correlated with the governmental tax revenue needed to pay pension contributions. Because investment returns and tax revenue …

Let Me, Or Let George? Motives Of Competing Altruists, Ted Bergstrom, Rodney Garratt, Greg Leo

Ted C Bergstrom

Sometimes a costly action taken by a single individual is sufficient to benefit an entire group. This should imply technical economies of scale to groups of larger size. But in a group of selfishly motivated agents, a countervailing force, the free-rider problem, may actually reduce the likelihood of provision as group size increases. Yet there are con- spicuous real-world cases where, in seeming defiance of the free-rider problem, a small minority provides a public good that benefits a large population. Examples include unpaid contributions to Wikipedia, Linux, and the bone-marrow registry. We suggest that these successful outcomes occur because a …

Saving Lives With Stem Cell Transplants, Damien Sheehan-Connor, Ted C. Bergstrom, Rodney Garratt

Ted C Bergstrom

Blood stem cell transplants can be life-saving for some patients, but the chances of finding a matching donor are small unless a large number of potential donors are evaluated. Many nations maintain large registries of potential donors who have offered to donate stem cells if they are the best available match for a patient needing a transplant. An alternative source of stem cells, umbilical cord blood, is stored in banks. Everyone faces a small probability of needing a transplant which will increase their likelihood of survival. The registries and cord blood banks are thus an interesting example of a pure …

Tax Credits Response To Tax Enforcement: Evidence From A Quasi-Experiment In Chile, Claudio Agostini, Claudia Martínez A.

Claudia Martínez A.

Diesel in Chile receives a different tax treatment depending on its use. If diesel is used in industrial activities the diesel taxes paid can be fully used as a credit against VAT, but if it is used in freight or public transportation -basically trucks and buses- only a fraction of diesel taxes paid can be claimed as a tax credit for VAT payments. As a result of this different tax treatment firms have incentives to use “tax exempted” diesel in activities requiring “non tax exempted” diesel. This tax wedge, therefore, generates an opportunity for tax evasion, especially for firms with …

Undergraduate Public Finance (Bepp 201), Matthew Freedman

Matthew Freedman

This course will examine the role of the government in the economy and its impact on individuals and firms. The aim of the course is to provide an understanding of the reasons for government intervention in the economy, the extent of that intervention, and the response of individuals and firms to the government’s actions. A wide variety of topics will be covered, including (but not limited to) environmental regulation, education, health care, social insurance programs, budget deficits, and the taxation of both individuals and firms.

The syllabus is posted here.

Course materials are posted on Canvas.

Taught Spring …

Saving Lives With Stem Cell Transplants, Damien Sheehan-Connor, Ted Bergstrom, Rodney Garratt

Ted C Bergstrom

For patients with certain diseases, blood stem cell transplants can be life-saving. But a transplant is likely to be successful only if the immune systems of the donor and recipient are a close genetic match. Human immune systems are extremely diverse and a patient's chances of finding a matching donor would be small without the ability to search a very large number of possible donors. For this reason, most advanced nations maintain large registries of potential donors who have offered to donate stem cells if they happen to be the best available match for a patient needing a transplant. In …

Three Essays On Local Government Debt, Robert Greer

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

The local government tax-exempt debt market is a growing, and complex, sector of public finance. As local governments turn to debt financing the factors that contribute to interest costs of that debt have become important considerations for local government officials and politicians. Governance at the local level involves a network of overlapping governments some of which share a tax base. This system of overlapping governments that share a tax base are subject to externalities that arise from taxation, expenditures, and debt. These externalities are usually analyzed in terms of tax or expenditure reactions, but there are implications for local government …

Una Propuesta De Crédito Tributario Al Ingreso Para Chile, Claudio A. Agostini, Marcela Perticará, Javiera Selman

Claudio A. Agostini

En 1975, Estados Unidos estableció un sistema de crédito tributario reembolsable focalizado en familias de bajos o moderados ingresos denominado Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). La recepción del crédito es condicional en trabajar, y si este es mayor a lo que una familia debe pagar por impuestos, entonces se le hace una transferencia monetaria. Esta política ha tenido un impacto positivo en la participación laboral femenina, sobre todo de mujeres madres solteras, y se ha constituido en el programa más importante de ese país en la reducción de la pobreza. Este documento simula el efecto que tendría implementar un esquema …

Review Of Robert Frank's Darwin Economy, Ted C. Bergstrom

Ted C Bergstrom

This is a short book review of Frank's ``Darwin Economy''.

La Incidencia Distributiva Del Impuesto A Las Gasolinas En Chile, Claudio A. Agostini, Johanna Jimenez

Claudio A. Agostini

En este trabajo se analiza la incidencia distributiva del impuesto específico a las gasolinas en Chile, usando para ello la V y VI Encuestas de Presupuestos Familiares. La incidencia se calcula tanto respecto a la distribución de ingreso como de gasto, de tal forma de considerar las potenciales diferencia entre ingreso transitorio y permanente. Se estima el Índice de Suits como medida de la progresividad del impuesto y utilizando bootstrapping se calculan intervalos de confianza que permitan comparar estadísticamente cambios en la incidencia frente a cambios en el impuesto. Los resultados muestran que el impuesto es leve o moderadamente progresivo, …

Interjurisdictional Capitalization Of A New Metro Line On Housing Values, Claudio A. Agostini, Gaston Palmucci

Claudio A. Agostini

Many governments continue constructing new subway lines with the goal of reducing congestion and pollution in large cities. Besides the potential global effects on reducing negative externalities in the city, there are some local positive effects in terms of lower commuting time and distance for residents living close to the subway stations. These benefits of the public transport services should capitalize totally or partially on housing prices. Most of the empirical work has estimated the effects on housing prices after the public transit infrastructure is operating and implicitly assumed homogeneous capitalization across jurisdictions. However, due to differences on local public …

Equidad Tributaria Horizontal En El Impuesto Al Ingreso En Chile, Claudio Agostini, Claudia Martínez A., Barbara Flores

Claudia Martínez A.

En este trabajo, se estiman los efectos distributivos de eliminar el tratamiento diferencial de ingresos empresariales respecto a los ingresos individuales en el sistema tributario Chileno, así como también, de eliminar la principal exención existente en el impuesto al ingreso de las personas: ahorro previsional voluntario. En el caso de esta exención, los resultados muestran que si bien quienes la usan son mayoritariamente personas de mayores ingresos, su eliminación no aumenta la progresividad del impuesto al ingreso. En el caso de la eliminación del tratamiento tributario favorable a los ingresos corporativos, los efectos distributivos son importantes en magnitud y el …

Essays On Crime And Tax Evasion, Sean C. Turner

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays addressing two issues related to crime and tax evasion. The first essay investigates the relationship between property and violent crime with law enforcement expenditures. The second essay examines the market structure in transition economies and the effects on firm-level tax evasion. The third essay investigates the incidence of tax evasion in a general equilibrium framework. The topics in all three essays are linked by their focus on criminal or illegal behavior. The essays also answer questions related to developing sound governmental policy and decision-making.

Chapter one attempts to identify the impact on crime of …

The Uncommon Insight Of Elinor Ostrom, Ted C. Bergstrom

Ted C Bergstrom

Abstract Standard economic approaches to the problem of overuse of common property resources have emphasized two competing remedies, the Pigovian approach of corrective taxation and the property rights approach of internalizing externalities by means of assigning marketable property rights to individual owners with exclusive claim on the entire commons. Elinor Ostrom pursues a third approach, which is based on case studies of existing communities that have established successful and durable systems of managing common property resources. This paper discusses her work and suggests that economists with an interest in public policy have much to gain from becoming familiar with the …

A Public Choice Framework For Controlling Transmissable And Evolving Diseases, Benjamin Althouse, Ted Bergstrom, Carl Bergstrom

Ted C Bergstrom

No abstract provided.

Estimando Indigencia Y Pobreza Indígena Regional Con Datos Censales Y Encuestas De Hogares, Claudio A. Agostini, Philip H. Brown, Andrei Roman

Claudio A. Agostini

While indigenous Chileans are believed to experience higher poverty rates than non-indigenous Chileans, evidence is typically based on surveys that are not representative by ethnicity. We adapt poverty mapping methodologies to estimate poverty and poverty gaps for eight indigenous groups more precisely. We find that indigenous people experience higher rates of poverty and also greater depth of poverty. These results hold within regions, suggesting that geographic variation in economic opportunity cannot fully explain the differences. We also find that the poverty burden is not equal across indigenous groups and argue that ethnicity should be included as a criterion for antipoverty …

Pobreza, Desigualdad Y Segregación En La Región Metropolitana, Claudio A. Agostini

Claudio A. Agostini

En general, hay consenso respecto a cómo medir pobreza y desigualdad. Es por ello que existe un grado importante de acuerdo sobre su evolución en el tiempo, tanto en Chile como en la Región Metropolitana. Sin embargo, no existe igual grado de acuerdo respecto a la segregación. No hay una definición clara de qué es segregación ni cómo medirla, ni hay datos validados que permitan ver su evolución en el tiempo. No obstante, la ciudad de Santiago suele ser percibida como una urbe muy segregada y se piensa que ello tiene efectos negativos. En general, no hay buenos argumentos para …

Differential Fuel Taxes And Their Effects On Automobile Demand, Claudio A. Agostini

Claudio A. Agostini

Fuel taxation policy in Chile has always been to keep taxes on diesel lower than those on gasoline. The proportion of automobiles with diesel engines has grown considerably as a result. Just 20% of diesel engine emissions are equivalent to 80% of gasoline engine emissions, and this affects the level of externalities associated with automobile use, especially in cities such as Santiago where pollution levels are high. This study estimates the effect of the fuel tax differential on automobile demand. The findings indicate diesel automobile demand elasticities of -3.4 and 2.1 with respect to the price of the vehicle and …

El Mercado De Valores Chileno: Análisis Y Propuestas En El Ámbito Tributario, Claudio A. Agostini, Carlos Budnevich

Claudio A. Agostini

A partir de un marco tributario que considera tanto los objetivos de la política tributaria de un país como sus efectos, en este trabajo se analizan los distintos impuestos que afectan al mercado de capitales en Chile. Dicho análisis, junto a una exhaustiva revisión de la literatura económica en este tema, tanto teórica como empírica, dan lugar a un conjunto de propuestas que permitirían reducir las potenciales distorsiones que introducen los impuestos en el mercado de valores en Chile actualmente, y que harían más eficiente su funcionamiento.

One Chance In A Million: Altruism And The Bone Marrow Registry, Ted Bergstrom, Rod Garratt, Damien Sheehan-Connor

Ted C Bergstrom

Transplants of donated stem cells save the lives of many patients with blood diseases. Donation is somewhat painful, butrarely has lasting adverse effects. Patients can accept transplants only from donors with compatible immune systems. Those lacking a sibling match must seek donations from the population at large. The probability that two persons of the same race are compatible is less than 1/10,000. Health authorities maintain a registry of several million genetically-tested potential donors who have agreed to donate if asked. We study the peculiar structure of voluntary public good provision represented by the registry, and compare the marginal benefits and …

A Public Choice Framework For Controlling Transmissable And Evolving Diseases, Ted C. Bergstrom, Carl T. Bergstrom, Ben Althouse

Ted C Bergstrom

Control measures used to limit the spread of infectious disease often generate externalities. Vaccination for transmissible diseases can re- duce the incidence of disease even among the unvaccinated, whereas antimicrobial chemotherapy can lead to the evolution of antimicro- bial resistance and thereby limit its own e#11;ectiveness over time. We integrate the economic theory of public choice with mathematical models of infectious disease to provide quantitative framework for making allocation decisions in the presence of these externalities. To illustrate, we present a series of examples: vaccination for tetanus, vaccination for measles, antibiotic treatment of otitis media, and antiviral treatment of pandemic …

Capitalización Heterogénea De Un Bien Semipúblico: El Metro De Santiago, Claudio A. Agostini, Gaston A. Palmucci

Claudio A. Agostini

In this work we estimate the degree of capitalization of the Santiago Subway (Metro) network on housing prices, analyzing price the differences among lines and counties. For this purpose, we combine hedonic price regressions with simple difference estimators. The results show that apartments located near the Metro stations have, on average, a larger value of 8.84%, 27.16% y 6.72% for Lines 1, 2, and 5 respectively. The degree of capitalization is not uniform within a county but depends on the distance to the subway station and the specific line providing the service.

Distribución Espacial De La Pobreza En Chile, Claudio A. Agostini, Philip H. Brown, Diana Paola Gongora

Claudio A. Agostini

Chile ha sido particularmente exitoso en la reducción de la pobreza durante los últimos 20 años, disminuyendo el porcentaje de la población bajo la línea de pobreza de un 38,6% en 1990 a un 13,7% en 2006. Con tasas de pobreza más bajas el esfuerzo de focalización necesario para el diseño de políticas públicas que permitan reducir aún más o erradicar la pobreza es mucho mayor y se requiere información más desagregada a nivel geográfico.\nLos mapas de pobreza pueden cumplir este rol, ya que entregan una descripción detallada de la distribución espacial de la pobreza, lo cual permite adicionalmente estudiar …

Desigualdad Geográfica En Chile, Claudio A. Agostini, Philip H. Brown

Claudio A. Agostini

Despite success in reducing poverty over the last twenty years, inequality in Chile has remained virtually unchanged, making Chile one of the least equal countries in the world. High levels of inequality have been shown to hamper further reductions in poverty as well as economic growth and local inequality has been shown to affect such outcomes as violence and health. The study of inequality at the local level is thus crucial for understanding the economic well-being of a country. Local measures of inequality have been difficult to obtain, but recent theoretical advances have enabled the combination of survey and census …

Natural Kantian Or Zoo Economicus? Evolutionary Theories Of Selfishness And Altruism Among Men And Beasts, Ted C. Bergstrom

Ted C Bergstrom

This paper addresses the question of whether our evolutionary history suggests that humans are likely to be individually selected selfish maximizers or group selected altruists. It surveys models from the literature of evolutionary biology in which groups are formed and dissolved and where the reproductive success of individuals is determined by their payoffs in a game played within groups. We show that if groups are formed randomly and reproductive success of group founders is determined by a multi-person prisoners’ dilemma game, then selfish behavior will prevail over maximization of group payoffs. However, interesting models can be found for which “group …

Benefit-Cost In A Benevolent Society, Ted Bergstrom

Ted C Bergstrom

How should benefit-cost analysis account for the value that benevolent individuals place on other people's pleasure from public goods? When adding up the benefits to be compared with costs, should we sum the private valuations, the altruistic valuations, or something else? This paper proposes a partial answer and offers some suggestions for benefit-cost practitioners.