The Effects Of U.S. Fiscal Policy On Income Inequality ( 1913 – 2013 ), J.D. Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

Income inequality in the United States has reached a level not seen since the Great Depression. Some academics and lawmakers suggest that growing inequality is due to changes in fiscal policy, arguing that cuts in taxes and government spending have reduced the inequality-mitigating effect of fiscal redistribution. While older research provides some support for this argument, newer research suggests otherwise. This disagreement in the literature led me to ask, How has fiscal policy affected income inequality in the United States during the last century? This study seeks to answer this question using data from Piketty et al. (2018), which includes …

State Economic Development: Analyzing The Moderating Effects Of Business Climate On Economic Growth, Sean A. Brazier

Theses and Dissertations

States across the country focus intensely on creating jobs, catalyzing capital investment, and stimulating economic output. They pursue different strategies, mixing and matching a variety of tactics in the pursuit of their economic objectives. While scholars have studied the relationship between economic development tactics and economic growth or business climate and economic growth, none to my knowledge have studied the impact of economic development efforts on economic outcomes while accounting for a state’s business climate.

I found economic development spending to be negatively associated with employment growth (other measures, real gross state product and per capita income growth, were not …

The Economics Of Immigration Reform, Howard F. Chang

All Faculty Scholarship

In this article, I draw upon economic theory and recent empirical work on the economic and fiscal effects of immigration to evaluate some recent proposals for immigration reform in terms of their effects on the economic welfare of natives in the United States. In particular, I consider the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act, a bill that would cut immigration to half of its current level. President Donald Trump has endorsed the RAISE Act and has insisted that many of its provisions be part of any legislation legalizing the status of unauthorized immigrants granted relief under the …

The Fair And Laissez-Faire Markets: From A Neoliberal Laissez-Faire Baseline To A Fair Market, Eric L. Dixon

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

The essay begins with a brief overview of the role of the neoliberal conception of the laissez-faire market in modern political economy. The essay then goes on to defend three claims: 1) the laissez-faire version of a market should not be considered the economic ideal or baseline version of a market because often the fundamental conditions required to reach a genuine equilibrium are unfulfilled under a laissez-faire environment, 2) a distribution resultant from a laissez-faire market should not be considered the ultima facie just distributive baseline because an unregulated market may allocate commodities according to morally arbitrary factors and requires …

The Impact Of Post-Recession State Revenue Reductions On Maine's Municipalities, Emily Shaw

Maine Policy Review

Maine municipalities have received substantially less revenue from the state over the past several years, due to a combination of financial pressures on state budgets and state administrative policy preferences. The result is that municipalities have been forced to restructure the provision and funding of local services through a combination of reducing spending in some categories, raising additional money from residents and other users of town services, or taking on additional municipal debt. However, on average, Maine’s municipalities have so far been unable to reduce their total spending. This discussion of municipal responses to reduced state revenue is based on …

The Distributional Effects Of Recent Changes To Maine’S Tax System, Joel Johnson

Maine Policy Review

Both classical economic theory and recent empirical research support the notion that taxes should be progressive: that the wealthiest citizens should pay a larger share of their income in taxes than the middle class, and the middle class should pay a larger share of their income in taxes than the poor. Like every other state in the U.S., Maine’s state and local tax system is not progressive, or even proportional with respect to income, but regressive. This article summarizes recent changes to income, sales, and property taxes that have made Maine’s state and local tax system more regressive.

Reducing The Drug War's Damage To Government Budgets, David B. Kopel, Trevor Burrus

David B Kopel

This Article examines ways that governments can mitigate the economic damage caused by the drug war. Part I details four specific legal reforms enacted in Colorado, which aim to reduce the problems of over-criminalization: Requiring a fiscal note for the creation of new statutory crimes; reducing drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor; narrowing the scope of 'three strikes' laws, and; adjusting old sentences in light of new laws.

Part II explores the fiscal benefits of ending prohibition, such as reduced law enforcement costs and substantially increased tax revenues.

Part III analyzes the conflict between congressionally-imposed prohibition, and state …

Slides: Costs And Benefits Of Development: An Industry Perspective, Glenn Vawter

The Promise and Peril of Oil Shale Development (February 5)

Presenter: Glenn Vawter, Executive Director, National Oil Shale Association

12 slides

A System Dynamics Approach To Assessing Public Policy Impact On The Sustainable Growth Rate Of New Ventures, Jeff W. Trailer, Kuau Garsson

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

The growth of firms is fundamentally based on self-reinforcing feedback loops, one of the most important of which involves cash flow. When profit margin is positive, sales generate cash, which may then be reinvested to finance the operating cash cycle. We analyze simulations of a sustainable growth model of a generic new venture to assess the importance of taxes, and regulatory costs in determining growth. The results suggest that new ventures are particularly vulnerable to public policy effects, since their working capital resource levels are minimal, and they have few options to raise external funds necessary to fuel their initial …

The Changing U.S. Economic Outlook, Murray L. Weidenbaum

Murray Weidenbaum Publications

Economist Murray Weidenbaum presents his outlook on the U.S. economy as it transitions from the longest peacetime expansion in its history to an economic recession.

How To Trim The Deficit Without Raising Taxes, Murray L. Weidenbaum

Murray Weidenbaum Publications

This article argues that raising taxes to reduce the budget deficit ignores an effective alternative: trimming unnecessary government spending.

Do Tax Incentives For Investment Work?, Murray L. Weidenbaum

Murray Weidenbaum Publications

This paper attempts to rebut the negative "charges" against tax incentives and argues that tax incentives have provided a substantial benefit to the American economy and that the tax payments of many companies have been largely underestimated.