Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Three Essays On The Search For Economic Efficiency, Jason J. Delaney

Economics Dissertations

The chapters of this dissertation examine efficiency failures in three areas of applied microeconomics: experimental economics, public finance, and game theory. In each case, we look at ways to resolve these failures to promote the public good. The first chapter, “An Experimental Test of the Pigovian Hypothesis,” looks at two different policies designed to reduce congestion in a common-pool resource (CPR). We present an experiment with training and a simplified decision task and find that subject behavior converges to the Nash prediction over a number of periods. A Pigovian subsidy effectively moves subject behavior to the pre-subsidy social optimum. Finally, …

Aspects Of Tax Spillovers: Is There A "Worldwide" Tax Burden?, Sandeep Bhattacharya

Economics Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to develop a model to examine the concept of a “worldwide” tax burden. The notion is that due to differential mobility of factors developed nations may be passing on a share of their tax burden to less developed countries while effectively indulging in a form of tax competition. This is important for many reasons especially since it may affect the distribution of income between countries, and influence the flow of capital. As globalization increases, “the race to the bottom” in taxation (which implies tax-cutting) suggests that these spillovers should be reduced over time. The …

Essays In Health Economics: A Focus On The Built Environment, Thomas James Christian

Economics Dissertations

The dissertation investigates how individual behaviors and health outcomes interplay with surrounding built environments, in three essays. We conceptually focus on travel behaviors and accessibility.

In the first essay, we hypothesize that urban sprawl increases requisite travel time which limits leisure time available as inputs to health production. We utilize the American Time Use Survey to quantify decreases in health-related activity participation due to commuting time. We identify significant evidence of trade-offs between commuting time and exercise, food preparation, and sleep behaviors, which exceed labor time trade-offs on a per-minute basis. Longer commutes are additionally associated with an increased likelihood …

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 …

Exploring Environmental Service Auctions, William B. Holmes

Economics Dissertations

The chapters of this dissertation explore related aspects of the procurement of conservation services from private landowners. In the first chapter, heuristic laboratory experiments reveal the impact of potential government regulation on strategic forces and efficiency properties in conservation procurement auctions. In the second chapter, data from past procurement auctions are analyzed to discover the existence and magnitude of premiums received by auction participants.

The first Chapter, “Procurement Auctions Under Regulatory Threat,” examines how strategic forces and efficiency properties are impacted in auctions for the procurement of environmental services when a threat of regulation is levied. Laboratory experiments examining different …

Essays On The Effects Of Early Childhood Malnutrition, Family Preferences And Personal Choices On Child Health And Schooling, Solomon T. Tesfu

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays investigating the role of early life events, family environment and personal choices in shaping a child’s chances for human capital accumulation. The first essay examines how physical stature of a child measured in terms of age standardized height influences his/her selection for family labor activities vs. schooling in rural Ethiopia using malnutrition caused by exposure to significant weather shocks in early childhood as sources of identification for the child’s physical stature. We find no evidence that better physical stature of the child leads to his/her positive selection for full-time child labor activities. On the …

Essays On Personal Income Taxation And Income Inequality, Denvil R. Duncan

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation comprises two essays that attempt to determine, empirically, the relationship between personal income taxation and income inequality. The first essay examines whether income inequality is affected by the structural progressivity of national income tax systems. Using detailed personal income tax schedules for a large panel of countries, we develop and estimate comprehensive, time-varying measures of structural progressivity of national income tax systems over the 1981–2005 period.

Our findings suggest that progressivity has a strong negative effect on inequality in reported gross and net income and that this negative effect is strongest in countries whose institutional framework supports pro-poor …

Essays On Agglomeration Trends In The U.S. Manufacturing Industries, 1988-2003, Abdullah Mahbuzzaman Khan

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays dealing with the trends in industrial agglomeration and changes in the influence of micro-determinants of agglomeration due to globalization in the U.S. manufacturing agglomeration and the second essay discusses the impact of globalization on the micro-determinants of agglomeration. The first essay explores recent agglomeration trends in the U.S. manufacturing industries between 1988 and 2003 using employment and employment-based agglomeration measures such as Ellison-Glaeser Index and Gini index, and using Herfindahl index as a measure of industrial concentration due to scale economies. Between 1988 and 2003, forty two states lost and eight states gained manufacturing …

Essays In Experimental And Environmental Economics, Sarah Jacobson

Economics Dissertations

The chapters of this dissertation explore complementary areas of applied microeconomics, within the fields of experimental and environmental economics. In each case, preferences and institutions interact in ways that enhance or subvert efficiency.

The first chapter, "The Girl Scout Cookie Phenomenon," uses a laboratory experiment to study favor trading in a public goods setting. The ability to practice targeted reciprocity increases contributions by 14%, which corresponds directly to increased efficiency. Subjects discriminate by rewarding group members who have been generous and withholding rewards from ungenerous group members. At least some reciprocal behavior is rooted in other-regarding preferences. When someone is …

Two Essays On Public Economics: The Consequences Of Fiscal Decentralization On Poverty And Inequality, And The Second Best Solution To The Public Expenditures’ Problem, Cristian F. Sepulveda

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two independent essays on public economics. The first essay studies the consequences of fiscal decentralization on poverty and income inequalities. This essay describes the possible channels through which fiscal decentralization might affect poverty and income inequalities, and carries out an empirical analysis with data of a large number of countries at different stages of development, for the period 1971-2000. Fiscal decentralization is found to have significant effects on poverty and income inequalities. These findings are important because they suggest, contrary to the traditional public finance theory, that sub-national governments can play an important role in the …

The Indirect Effects Of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs: An Empirical Analysis Of Familias En Accion, Monica P. Ospina

Economics Dissertations

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have become the most important social policy in Latin America, and their influence has spread to countries around the world. A number of studies provide strong evidence of the positive impacts of these programs on the main targeted outcomes, education and health, and have proved successful in other outcomes such as nutrition, household income, and child labor. As we expect CCT programs to remain a permanent aspect of social policy for the foreseeable future, demand for evidence of the indirect effects of CCT programs has grown beyond the initial emphasis of these programs. My research …

Plant Vintages, Grandfathering, And Environmental Policy, Garth Heutel

ECON Publications

Environmental regulations that grandfather existing plants by not holding them to the same strict standards as new plants may have the unintended consequence of retarding new investment. If new plants are cleaner, then this effect may increase pollution in the short run. I develop a dynamic model of a facility's decisions over scrapping and abatement, which depend on capital depreciation, profitability shocks, and environmental policy. Using data from fossil fuel fired boilers at electric power plants, I estimate the structural parameters of the model and assess the impact of grandfathering in the Clean Air Act on sulfur dioxide emissions. Counterfactual …

La Descentralizacion Tributaria En Las Comunidades Autonomas De Regimen Comun: Un Proceso Inacabado. (Tax Decentralization In The Autonomous Communities: An Unfinished Process. With English Summary.).”, Santiago Lago-Peñas, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

ECON Publications

Aunque el proceso de descentralización fiscal en España ha avanzado de forma muy notable en las tres últimas décadas, existen algunas asignaturas pendientes. Entre las más importantes se encuentra la descentralización del poder tributario a las Comunidades Autónomas de régimen común. Este artículo de panorama se concentra en lo que no se ha hecho del todo bien y por qué razones, al tiempo que se apuntan las direcciones de reforma para el futuro. El trabajo se divide en dos partes. En la primera, nos ocupamos de los fundamentos teóricos de la asignación tributaria en el caso de gobiernos multinivel y …

Financing Subnational Governments / Financiación De Las Haciendas Subcentrales, Roy W. Bahl

ECON Publications

This study deals with the assignment of tax competencies to subcentral governments and with the structure of this assignment of revenues. This review reconsiders the issues raised by Musgrave twenty-five years later. It poses the question of whether the tendency towards internationalization in the assignment of taxes follows the steps prescribed by economists, and it concludes with some reflections on the most probably future of the decentralization of the tax systems. In the course of this discussion, we distinguish between industrialized countries, countries in transition and developing countries.

Conditional Vs. Unconditional Grants: The Case Of Developing Countries, Roy W. Bahl

ECON Publications

Because subnational government taxation is not a viable option in many low-income countries, the financing of decentralized services often comes down to the choice between an unrestricted grant and one with conditions laid down by the higher level government. The central policy question that arises, and is explored in this paper, is how this choice does or does not compromise the success of fiscal decentralization.

We begin with some definitional issues and with empirical evidence about the revenue dependence on transfers in low income vs. OECD countries. Then we discuss the theoretical and practical advantage of conditional grants vs. unconditional …

Why You Should Care About The Threatened Middle Class, Jill Littrell, Fred Brooks, Jan Ivery, Mary Ohmer

SW Publications

In the last two decades, the income and security of the individual middle class worker has declined and the gap between the middle class and the wealthy has widened. We explain how this is bad for democracy, the economy, and the aggregate health of the nation. We examine the governmental policies and interventions that increased the middle class following the depression and maintained its vigor through the post-World War II period. The impetus for these changes in governmental policies in the 1930s was to end the Great Depression. We pose the question of whether a nation can recover from a …

In Defense Of The Community Reinvestment Act, Jill Littrell, Fred Brooks

SW Publications

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 has probably received more media attention in the past two years than it garnered cumulatively over the previous 30 years. Numerous conservative pundits and commentators have blamed the CRA for the subprime crisis and the subsequent world-wide financial meltdown. Most social workers are probably unaware that the CRA is probably responsible for more investment, loans, and wealth creation in low and moderate income neighborhoods than any other single piece of federal legislation over the past 40 years. This paper highlights the following features about …

Is Decentralization "Glue" Or "Solvent" For National Unity?, Richard M. Bird, Francois Villancourt, Edison Roy-Cesar

ICEPP Working Papers

The last two centuries have seen the rise of the nation-state as the dominant political institution around the world. During this period, the colonial empires of varying duration and reach created first by the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch, then the French and British, then the Germans and Italians, and finally the Russians and Americans crumbled and were replaced by independent nation-states. However, “state” and “nation” are not always equivalent. In a surprising number of countries, as we discuss later in this paper, autonomist and secessionist movements of varying strength and character remain active. The broad question we consider in this …

The Consequences Of Fiscal Decentralization On Poverty And Income Inequality, Cristian F. Sepulveda, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

ICEPP Working Papers

Many countries around the world are currently pursuing policies for poverty reduction and improving income distribution. Many of these same countries are also aggressively implementing fiscal decentralization reforms. Although fiscal decentralization, poverty and the distribution of income have been the subject of extensive separate theoretical and empirical research, to date we have little understanding of what may be the impact of fiscal decentralization on poverty and inequality. This paper sets out to shed some light on those relationships. After reviewing the literature addressing different aspects of these relationships, the paper describes the possible channels through which fiscal decentralization might affect …

Analytical General Equilibrium Effects Of Energy Policy On Output And Factor Prices, Garth Heutel, Don Fullerton

ECON Publications

Using an analytical general equilibrium model, we find solutions for the effect of energy policy on factor prices as well as output prices. We calibrate the model to the U.S. economy, and we consider a tax on carbon dioxide. By looking at expenditure and income patterns across household groups, we quantify the uses-side and sources-side incidence of the tax. When households are categorized either by annual income or by total annual consumption as a proxy for permanent income, the uses-side incidence is regressive. This result is robust to sensitivity analysis over various parameter values. The sources-side incidence can be progressive, …

The General Equilibrium Incidence Of Environmental Mandates, Garth Heutel, Don Fullerton

ECON Publications

Pollution regulations affect factor demands, relative returns, production, and output prices. In our model, one sector includes pollution as an input that can be a complement or substitute for labor or capital. For each type of mandate, we find conditions where more burden is on labor or on capital. Stricter regulation does not always place less burden on the better substitute for pollution. Also, restrictions on pollution per unit output create an “output-subsidy effect” on factor prices that can reverse the usual output and substitution effects. We find analogous effects for a restriction on pollution per unit capital.

Trust With Private And Common Property: Effects Of Stronger Property Right Entitlements, James C. Cox, Daniel T. Hall

ECON Publications

Is mutually beneficial cooperation in trust games more prevalent with private property or common property? Does the strength of property right entitlement affect the answer? Cox, Ostrom, Walker, et al. [1] report little difference between cooperation in private and common property trust games. We assign stronger property right entitlements by requiring subjects to meet a performance quota in a real effort task to earn their endowments. We report experiment treatments with sequential choice and strategy responses. We find that cooperation is lower in common property trust games than in private property trust games, which is an idiosyncratic prediction of revealed …

A New Paradigm For Property Taxation In Developing Countries, Roy W. Bahl, Sally Wallace

ECON Publications

The property tax is almost everyone’s choice for the principal local government tax revenue source in developing countries. The focus of public policy on this tax and the interest it has drawn from public finance scholars and practitioners are evidence of its importance.1 Moreover, both external donors and national governments have invested significant money in strengthening its administration. Despite all of the good work that has been done in designing more efficient property tax structures and administrations, property tax revenues still account for less than 1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and less than 4 percent of all tax …

Fiscal Decentralization To Rural Local Governments In India: A Case Study Of West Bengal State, Roy W. Bahl, Geeta Sethi, Sally Wallace

ECON Publications

Rural local governments in India provide essential services to over 70 percent of the national population. Yet, little is known about the efficacy of the financing system that supports these local governments, nor is there a fiscal information system that will allow a tracking of rural local government expenditures and revenues. In this article, we describe the role of rural local governments in India's; federal system, and use a database, newly gathered for West Bengal State, to present an analysis of rural local government financing patterns. We find that expenditures are significantly higher in less populated and more backward gram …