An induced innovations framework was used to develop and test a model of factors affecting county government's decisions to adopt alternative service delivery methods. Size measures of population and tax base, fiscal measures of tax revenues, the share of tax base in •agriculture and access to human capital were significantly related to county use of innovations. Disciplines Economic Policy | E...

As states deal with their fiscal crises and search for ways to close large gaps between revenues and expenditures, few states have yet enacted significant tax increases — with the exception of cigarette tax increases. So far this year, 14 states have increased their excise taxes on cigarettes, and cigarette tax increases are under active consideration in several other states. Before the year is...

There exists an ongoing debate on the necessity to reduce and harmonise VAT on cultural goods across Europe. The purpose of this paper is to provide new insights on this issue by simulating the effects of three different VAT regimes on movie consumption and tax revenues across Europe. To this aim we first estimate the movie demand by applying a modified version of the Becker and Murphy (1988)’s...

Theoretically speaking, heavy tax rates on gambling should dampen growth of the casino revenues. Indeed, a cursory glance at data across U.S. states suggests more jobs and income are generated directly by the gaming industry when lower tax rates are applied. Using a detailed computable general equilibrium model, we evaluate the effects of a proposed machinebased casino on New Jersey’s economy a...

This paper demonstrates that the optimal structure of taxation in a federal system of governments is one in which only lower level governments are allowed to tax, and the higher level of government receives its revenues as contributions from the lower level governments. The central inefficiency created when multiple levels are allowed to tax is a revenue externality between governments that is ...

This study explores the feasibility of implementing a sustainable funding mechanism for ocean and coastal management in Jamaica. Results show that tourists are more willing to pay for an ‘‘environmental tax’’ than a general ‘‘tourism development tax’’. The study found that an environmental surcharge of US$2 per person could generate $3.4M per year for management with 0.2% rate of decline in tou...

The Texas Legislature is discussing the option of raising tobacco taxes. Insight into how Texans view these issues is provided by a telephone survey with 6,345 participants carried out between October and December 2004. Overall support for a $1-per-pack tax increase was high, and it increased when specified uses of the tax revenues included smoking prevention and children’s health insurance. No...

While much has been written about inter-jurisdictional competition for tax revenues, especially concerning the choice between harmonization and competition, the literature has largely ignored intrajurisdiction issues. The few articles examining this issue focus on how lower level governmental entities react to the tax decisions of a national government. However, in some instances, multiple co-e...

This paper examines the relative effect of changes in tax rates under three differing taxation schemes. Unlike previous modeling attempts, our analysis is performed at a relatively small scale, namely that of a city. We use a data intensive computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of a small city and attempt to analyze the effects on local residents’ real incomes, city revenues and economic g...

phase-in of federal income taxes, Congress allowed oil and gas companies to deduct 27.5 percent of gross revenues (up to half of net income) for corporate income tax purposes. Characteristically, a tax policy that began as a technical adjustment of the tax code turned into a deliberate measure to stimulate oil and gas production. The deduction was a big hit with the industry because it far exce...