Arguments about the appropriate discount rate often start by assuming a Utilitarian social welfare function with isoelastic utility, in which the consumption discount rate is a function of the (constant) elasticity of marginal utility along with the (much discussed) utility discount rate. In this model, the elasticity of marginal utility simultaneously reflects preferences for intertemporal sub...

Individuals’ risk preferences are estimated and employed in a variety of settings, notably including choices in financial, labor, and product markets. Recent work, especially in financial economics, provides estimates of individuals’ coefficients of relative risk aversion (CRRA’s) in excess of one, and often significantly higher. However, it can be shown that high CRRA’s imply equally high valu...

We study optimal dynamic tax evasion in the framework proposed by Lin and Yang (2001) and Dzhumashev and Gahramanov (2011) with somemodifications: a more flexible utility function, a more realistic audit process, and a penalty function which can be defined both on evaded income and evaded taxes. In the former case the elasticity between tax rate and tax evasion is positive, unless the subsisten...

How do taxes affect human capital accumulation? This question has been studied extensively in the context of two model classes: overlapping generations (OLG) and infinite horizon (IH) models. These embody very different assumptions about the intergenerational transmission of physical and human capital. OLG models typically abstract from intergenerational linkages, while IH models implicitly ass...

Title of dissertation: ESSAYS IN PERSONAL TRANSPORTATION DEMAND AND CONSUMER FINANCE Jaclyn Evans, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Dissertation directed by: Professor Roberton C. Williams, III Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics This dissertation is composed of three essays covering two areas of interest. The first topic is personal transportation demand with a focus on price and fuel ...

Background: Imposing taxes on tobacco has been identified as one of the most effective methods of reducing tobacco use. Vietnam's tax structure, which sets different rates based on type of cigarette, has implications for the level of cigarette prices, economic burden of smoking, effect on tobacco use, and effect on tax revenues. Methods: Using data from the large scale Vietnam Living Standard S...