Rutgers University
Department of Economics
Economics 515: Public Economics
Spring 2012
Professors Altshuler and Sigman
Objectives and learning goals
This course integrates traditional public economics with economics of taxation and environmental
economics. It is designed to provide a working knowledge of modern theoretical and empirical
techniques for investigating how taxes affect economic behavior and how tax policy should be
designed. It also covers the economics of externalities and public goods with particular reference to
design and evaluation of environmental policies. Throughout the course, the aim is develop the
skills to think critically about the economics underlying public policies, to identify and answer
research questions, and to analyze microeconomic issues empirically.
This course is designed to promote two of the stated learning goals of the graduate program in
economics: (1) attain marked ability, scholarship, research and leadership skills in economics, with
specialization in selected sub-disciplines and (2) engage in and conduct research. These learning
goals apply to both doctoral and masters students. Economics 515 helps students achieve the first
goal by developing expertise in the sub-disciplines of the economics of taxation and environmental
economics. The course helps students begin the research process by requiring them to write a paper
in the form of a research proposal.
Background
To develop a good overview of the public economics field, students should have established a solid
mastery of an advanced undergraduate text. Harvey S. Rosen and Ted Gayer, Public Finance, 9th
edition, McGraw-Hill Publishers, is highly recommended. Students should have read through it by
the end of the semester. Another undergraduate text that is also recommended is Jonathan Gruber,
Public Finance and Public Policy, 3rd edition, Worth Publishers.
For environmental economics, recommended texts are Charles D. Kolstad, Environmental
Economics, Oxford University Press, 2010 and Hanley, Shogren and White (HSW), Environmental
Economics in Theory and Practice, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007. Although advertised as
undergraduate texts, both are at a fairly high level and should serve as a good background for many
of the articles.
Meeting times
Class meets on Mondays and Wednesday from 2:50 to 4:10 pm in New Jersey Hall, room 105.
The Empirical Microeconomics Workshop meets on Fridays from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm.
Attendance at the workshop is a complement to the course in terms of developing your skills as an
active researcher and is strongly encouraged. Many of the papers in the Empirical Microeconomics
Workshop papers directly relate to the topics covered in class.
Website
The course has a website at sakai.rutgers.edu. We will post updated reading lists and links to many
of the readings there. It also has links to related resources elsewhere on the web.
Course Requirements and Assessments of Learning Goals
1. Final exam (40%). The final exam will be held during finals week. The date for the exam
will be arranged in class. You will be required to answer questions on the material presented by
Professor Altshuler and by Professor Sigman. The exam helps the department assess whether
students are making progress towards achieving the first learning goal for the doctoral and masters
programs: attain marked ability, scholarship, research and leadership skills in economics, with
specialization in selected sub-disciplines.
2. Paper and presentations (60%). The paper should be 12-15 pages and is due on April 25.
Students will briefly present a paper related to their research proposal after spring break and will
present their research proposal during the last week of classes.
The paper will have the form of research proposal in public economics, such as one might submit as
a grant request to funding agency. The paper should 1) state the research question, 2) explain how
the question relates to other, resolved, questions and how it is different, 3) defend why the question
is important enough to warrant attention, 4) review the existing literature on the topic, 5) sketch out
a model that will allow you to answer the question, 6) identify what are likely to be the important
theoretical and empirical problems to be overcome, 7) describe the data that could be used for
analysis, and 8) conclude.
The paper helps the department assess whether students are making progress towards the second
learning goal for the doctoral and masters programs: engage in and conduct research.
A two-page pre-proposal will be due on Monday, March 26. The pre-proposal should briefly
describe the research question (first page) and list articles that you intend to use as references
(second page). The proposal should also identify the paper you will present in class on March 28 or
April 2.
Instructor information
Professor Altshuler
Office:
307 New Jersey Hall
Office hours:
M, W 4:30 to 5:30 pm or by appointment
E-mail address: altshule@rci.rutgers.edu
Professor Sigman
Office:
Office hours:
E-mail address:
424 New Jersey Hall
M, W 1:30-2:30 pm or by appointment
sigman@econ.rutgers.edu
Class schedule (tentative)
• Jan. 18 – 25
• Jan 30
• Feb 1
• Feb 6 - Feb 29
• March 5 – March 7
Professor Sigman (Part I of reading list)
Empirical Microeconomics Seminar (meets 2:45-4:15)
Professor Sigman (Part I of reading list)
Professor Altshuler (Parts II through IV)
Professor Sigman (Part V)
2
•
•
•
•
•
March 12 –14
March 19– April 9
April 11 – April 25
April 30
Finals period
Spring break
Professor Sigman (Parts VI-VII)
Professor Altshuler (Parts VIII-X)
Student presentations
Final exam (to be announced)
READING LIST
References
Very good graduate level texts include:
A. Atkinson and J. Stiglitz, Lectures in Public Economics, (McGraw-Hill, 1980). (Hereafter,
"A&S.") Unfortunately this book is now out of print. We each have a copy you can borrow.
G. Myles, Public Economics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
B. Salanié, Economics of Taxation, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002).
W. Baumol and W. Oates, The Theory of Environmental Policy, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1988).
An important source of survey articles is:
A. Auerbach and M. Feldstein, Handbook of Public Economics, volumes 1-4 (North-Holland).
(Note: Many of these articles are available on the course website.)
Other sources of review articles include:
James Mirrlees et al., eds., Dimensions of Tax Design: The Mirrlees Review, Oxford University
Press (2010) http://www.ifs.org.uk/mirrleesReview/dimensions
New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com (if on campus
or authenticated thru RUL proxy)
Two nice set of lecture slides are available for some of the tax topics:
Public Economics Lectures (Raj Chetty)
http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/slides/public_economics_lectures.pdf
Graduate Public Economics (Emmanuel Saez) http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/course/course.html
3
I. MARKET FAILURES AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Kolstad, Ch 5
A. Externalities, Property Rights
Baumol and Oates, Ch 4
Kolstad, Ch 6 or HSW, Ch 3
R.H. Coase, “The Problem of Social Cost,” Journal of Law and Economics 3 (1960), 1-44.
R. Cooter, “The Cost of Coase,” Journal of Legal Studies. 11 (1982), 1-33.
S. Ferreira. “Deforestation, Property Rights, and International Trade.” Land Economics 80
(2004): 174-193
B. Public Goods
A&S, pp. 482-497, 513-517
T. Bergstrom, L. Blume, and H. Varian. “On the Private Provision of Public Goods,”
Journal of Public Economics 29, no. 1 (February, 1986): 25-49.
J Andreoni. “Privately Provided Public Goods in a Large Economy: The Limits of
Altruism,” Journal of Public Economics 35 (1988): 57–73.
J. C. Murdoch and T. Sandler, "The Voluntary Provision of a Pure Public Good: The Case of
Reduced CFC Emissions and the Montreal Protocol." Journal of Public Economics 63
(1997), 331-349.
M. J. Kotchen and M.R. Moore. “Private Provision of Environmental Public Goods:
Household Participation in Green-Electricity Programs." Journal of Environmental
Economics and Management 53 (2007), 1-16.
C. Local public goods; Education
N. V. Kuminoff, V. Kerry Smith, and C. Timmins. “The New Economics of Equilibrium
Sorting and its Transformational Role for Policy Evaluation” NBER Working Paper
16349, Sept 2010.
P. W. Rhode and K. S. Strumpf. “Assessing the Importance of Tiebout Sorting: Local
Heterogeneity from 1850 to 1990,” The American Economic Review, 93 (Dec., 2003):
1648-1677.
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C.M. Hoxby. “Does Competition among Public Schools Benefit Students and Taxpayers?”
American Economic Review, 90 (2000): 1209-1238 (also see 2007 exchange between
Rothstein and Hoxby)
II. THE THEORY AND MEASURMENT OF TAX INCIDENCE
A. Tax Incidence, Preliminaries and Overview
Rosen, chapter 14.
D. Fullerton and G. Metcalf, “Tax Incidence,” Handbook of Public Economics, vol. 4,
Chapter 26.
B. Partial Equilibrium Tax Incidence
Salanié, chapter 1.
R. Chetty, A. Looney, and K. Kroft. “Salience and Taxation: Theory and Evidence,”
American Economic Review 99(4): 1145-1177, 2009.
R. Chetty. The Simple Economics of Salience and Taxation. NBER Working Paper
No. 15246, August 2009.
T. Besley and H. Rosen. “Sales Taxes and Prices: An Empirical Analysis,” National Tax
Journal 52, (1999).
J. Gruber and B. Koszegi. “Tax Incidence when Individuals are Time-Inconsistent: The Case
of Cigarette Excise Taxes,” Journal of Public Economics (2004), 88(9-10), 1959-1987.
C. General Equilibrium Tax Incidence
Myles, chapter 8, pages 236-24.
A. Harberger, "The Incidence of the Corporation Income Tax", Journal of Political
Economy, June 1962. (Reprinted in Taxation and Welfare, 1974.)
A. Auerbach, “Who Bears the Corporate Tax? A Review of What We Know” in J. Poterba,
ed., Tax Policy and the Economy 20, 2006, 1-40.
K. Clausing, “In Search of Corporate Tax Incidence,” Working Paper, November 2011.
D. Capitalization and the Asset Price Approach
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D. Cutler, “Tax Reform and the Stock Market: An Asset Price Approach,” American
Economic Review, 78(5), December 1988, 1107-1117.
J. Friedman, “The Incidence of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit: Using Asset Prices
to Assess Its Impact on Drug Makers,” Harvard KSG Working Paper, 2009.
L. Linden and J. Rockoff, “There Goes the Neighborhood? Estimates of the Impact of Crime
Risk on Property Values from Megan's Laws,” American Economic Review 98(3): 11031127, 2008.
D. Lyon, “The Effect of the Investment Tax Credit on the Value of the Firm,” Journal of
Public Economics, 38(2), March 1989, 227-247.
J. Poterba, “Tax Subsidies to Owner-Occupied Housing: An Asset Market Approach,”
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 99(4), November 1984, 729-752.
L. Summers, “The Asset Price Approach to the Analysis of Capital Income Taxation,”
Proceedings of the National Tax Association, 1983, 112-120.
L. Summers, “Taxation and Corporate Investment: A q-Theory Approach,” Brookings
Papers on Economic Activity, 1981:1, 67-127.
III. EFFICIENCY COST OF TAXATION
A. Overview
Rosen, chapter 15.
Salanié, chapter 2.
A. Auerbach and J. Hines, “Taxation and Economic Efficiency,” Handbook of Public
Economics, vol. 3, Chapter 21; Sections 1-2.
D. Fullerton, "Reconciling Recent Estimates of the Marginal Welfare Cost of Taxation,"
American Economic Review, March 1991:302-308.
C. Ballard and D. Fullerton, "Distortionary Taxes and the Provision of Public Goods,"
Journal of Economic Perspectives,1992: 117-131.
L. Goulder and R. Williams, “The Substantial Bias from Ignoring General Equilibrium
Effects in Estimating Excess Burden, and a Practical Solution,” Journal of Political
Economy 111 (2003), 898-927.
6
B. Applications
M. Feldstein, “The Effect of Marginal Tax Rates on Taxable Income: A Panel Study of the
1986 Tax Reform Act,” Journal of Political Economy, 103 No. 3 (June, 1995): 551-72.
J. Slemrod, "Methodological Issues in Measuring and Interpreting Taxable Income
Elasticities," National Tax Journal, 51 No. 4 (December, 1998): 773-88.
J. Gruber and E. Saez, "The Elasticity of Taxable Income: Evidence and Implications,"
Journal of Public Economics, 84 No. 1 (April, 2002): 1-32.
W. Kopczuk, “Tax Bases, Tax Rates and the Elasticity of Reported Income,”
Journal of Public Economics 89, December 2005, 2093-2119.
E. Saez, J. Slemrod, and S. Giertz (2009) “The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to
Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review,” NBER Working Paper 15408, (Journal of
Economic Literature, forthcoming).
R. Chetty. “Is the Taxable Income Elasticity Sufficient to Calculate Deadweight Loss? The
Implications of Evasion and Avoidance,” American Economic Journal: Economic
Policy: 1(2), 2009.
J. Poterba, Taxation and Housing: Old Questions, New Answers, American Economic
Review, May 1992, 237-242.
J. Marion and E. Muehlegger, Measuring Illegal Activity and the Effects of Regulatory
Innovation: Tax Evasion and the Dyeing of Untaxed Diesel, Journal of Political
Economy, 2008.
A. Goolsbee, “The Value of Broadband and the Deadweight Loss of Taxing New
Technologies,” Contributions to Economic Analysis & Policy (B.E. Press Journals), 5(1),
2006.
IV. OPTIMAL TAXATION
A. Overview and introduction
Rosen, chapter 16.
Salanié, chapters 2-7.
A. Auerbach, "The Theory of Excess Burden and Optimal Taxation," in Handbook of Public
Economics, vol. 1.
7
J. Slemrod, "Optimal Taxation and Optimal Tax Systems," Journal of Economic
Perspectives, Vol. 4, No. 1, Winter 1990.
B. Optimal Commodity Taxation
Myles, Chapter 4.
Salanié, chapter 3.
Auerbach and Hines, section 3.
C. Optimal Income Taxation
Myles, Chapter 5.
Auerbach and Hines, section 4.
E. Saez, “Using Elasticities to Derive Optimal Income Tax Rates”, Review of
Economic Studies, January 2001, 205-229.
D. Application: Tax Reform
P. Diamond and E. Saez, “The Case for a Progressive Tax: From Basic Research to Policy
Recommendations,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2011, 165-190.
V. DESIGN OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Kolstad, Ch 9 or HSW ch 4
A. Corrective Taxes
Baumol and Oates, Ch 14
A&S, pp. 451-4 (optimal tax context)
A. Sandmo, “Direct Versus Indirect Pigovian Taxation,” European Economic Review 7, no.
4 (May, 1976): 337-349.
P. Diamond, “Consumption Externalities and Imperfect Corrective Pricing,” Bell J of
Economics, 4 (1973), 526-38.
I.W.H. Parry and K.A. Small, “Does Britain or the United States have the Right Gas Tax?”
American Economic Review 95 (2005), 1276
8
D. Fullerton and T. C. Kinnaman, “Garbage, Recycling, and Illicit Burning or Dumping,”
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 29 (1995), 78--91.
B. Markets for the Environment
T.H. Tietenberg, “Tradable Permits for Pollution Control when Emission Location Matters:
What Have We Learned?” Environmental and Resource Economics, 5(2):95-113.
C. Carlson et al. “Sulfur Dioxide Control by Electric Utilities: What are the Gains from
Trade?” Journal of Political Economy 108 (2000): 1292-1326.
A.D. Ellerman and P.L. Joskow. The European Union's Emissions Trading System in
Perspective. Pew Center on Global Climate Change, 2008
D. Burtraw et al. “Economics of Pollution Trading for SO2 and NOx.” Resources for the
Future Discussion Paper, 2005
M. Fowlie. “Emissions Trading, Electricity Industry Restructuring, and Investment in
Pollution Control.” American Economic Review, 100 (June 2010).
A. Blackman. Alternative Pollution Control Policies in Developing Countries. Rev Environ
Econ Policy (2010) 4(2): 234-253
C. Policy design with uncertainty
Kolstad, Ch 10
M. Weitzman, “Prices vs. quantities,” Review of Economic Studies 41 (1974), 477-91.
M.J. Roberts and M. Spence. “Effluent Charges and Licenses under Uncertainty,” Journal of
Public Economics 5 (1976), 193-208.
R. Newell and W.A. Pizer. “Regulating Stock Externalities under Uncertainty.” Journal of
Environmental Economics and Management 45, 2S (2003): 416-32.
W.A. Pizer. “The Optimal Choice of Climate Change Policy in the Presence of
Uncertainty”. Resource and Energy Economics 21 (1999/8): 255-87.
D. Second-best public policies
Kolstad, pp. 281-284
Myles, pp. 291-294 or Atkinson-Stiglitz, pp. 490-494
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A.L. Bovenberg and L.H. Goulder. “Environmental Taxation and Regulation” in Auerbach
and Feldstein, Handbook of Public Economics (NBER Working Paper 8458)
D. Fullerton. “Environmental Levies and Distortionary Taxation: Comment” The American
Economic Review, Vol. 87, No. 1. (Mar., 1997), pp. 245-251
C. L. Ballard and D. Fullerton. “Distortionary Taxes and the Provision of Public Goods,
Journal of Economic Perspectives, 6 (3) (1992), 117-131.
L. Kaplow. “On the (Ir)relevance of Distribution and Labor Supply Distortion to
Government Policy.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 18 (4), (2004): 159-75.
I.W.H. Parry and W.E. Oates. “Policy Analysis in the Presence of Distorting Taxes.”
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 19, No. 4, 603–613 (2000)
E. Liability as Environmental Policy
Kolstad, pp. 229-240
S. Shavell, “A Model of the Optimal Use of Liability and Safety Regulation,'' RAND
Journal of Economics, 15 (1984) 271-80.
S. Shavell, “Corrective Taxation versus Liability.” American Economic Review (May 2011)
A. Alberini and D. Austin, “Accidents Waiting to Happen: Liability Policy and Toxic
Pollution Releases,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 84 no. 2 (2000): 729–41
VI. EVALUATING ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
A. Valuing Environmental Improvements
Kolstad, Ch 16, 17, 18 or HSW, ch 11
R. Mendelsohn and S. Olmstead “The Economic Valuation of Environmental Amenities and
Disamenities: Methods and Applications” Annual Review of Environment and Resources
34 (2009): 325–47 http://www.annualreviews.org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/doi/full/10.1146/annurevenviron-011509-135201
K.Y. Chay and M. Greenstone. “Does Air Quality Matter? Evidence from The Housing
Market.” Journal of Political Economy. 113 (2), (2005), 376-424.
R.T. Carson et al. “Contingent Valuation and Lost Passive Use: Damages from the Exxon
Valdez Oil Spill.” Environmental and Resource Economics (2003) 25: 257-286.
10
B. Value of a Statistical Life
W.K. Viscusi, and J.E. Aldy. “The Value of z Statistical Life: A Critical Review of Market
Estimates throughout the World.” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 27 (2003): 5-76.
T. A. Cameron. “Euthanizing the Value of a Statistical Life.” Review of Environmental
Economics and Policy (2010) 4(2): 161-178.
C. Cost-Benefit Comparisons with Uncertainty
R.G. Newell and W. A. Pizer. “Discounting the Distant Future: How Much Do Uncertain
Rates Increase Valuations?” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 46,
(1): 52-71.
K.J. Arrow and A.C. Fisher, “Environmental Preservation, Uncertainty, and Irreversibility.”
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 88(1), 312–319.
Weitzman, Pindyck, and Nordhaus “Symposium: Fat Tails and the Economics of Climate
Change” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 5(2) (2011): 240-292
VII. TIME AND SPACE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
A. Environment, Growth, and Productivity
Levinson, A. “The Ups and Downs of the Environmental Kuznets Curve.” In Recent
Advances in Environmental Economics, ed. J. List and A. de Zeeuw. (Northhampton,
MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2002).
M. Greenstone, List and C. Syverson, “The Effects of Environmental Regulation on the
Competitiveness of U.S. Manufacturing” (Feb 2011) http://ssrn.com/abstract=1759405
B. Innovation
Kolstad, pp. 245-249
S.R. Milliman and R. Prince, “Firm Incentives to Promote Technological Change in
Pollution Control,” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 17 (1989),
247-65.
Hammitt, J.K. “Are the Costs of Proposed Environmental Regulations Overestimated?
Evidence from the CFC Phaseout.” Environmental and Resource Economics 16, (3)
(2000): 281-301.
11
D. Popp. “Induced Innovation and Energy Prices.” American Economic Review 92(1)
(2002): 160-80.
R. G. Newell, A. B. Jaffe and R. N. Stavins, “The Induced Innovation Hypothesis and
Energy-Saving Technological Change,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114
(1999): 941-97
C. Decentralization
Kolstad, pp. 249-254, A&S, Ch 17
W.E. Oates and R.M. Schwab. “Economic Competition among Jurisdictions: Efficiencyenhancing or Distortion Inducing?” Journal of Public Economics 35 (1988), 333-54.
A. Levinson. “Environmental Regulatory Competition: A Status Report and Some New
Evidence,” National Tax Journal 56, no. 1 (Part 1 March, 2003): 91-106.
S.B. Brunnermeier and A. Levinson. “Examining the Evidence on Environmental
Regulations and Industry Location,” Journal of Environment and Development 13
(March, 2004): 6-41.
H. Sigman. “Transboundary Spillovers and Decentralization of Environmental Policies.”
Journal of Environmental Economics & Management 50, no. 1 (July, 2005): 82-101
K.S. Strumpf and F. Oberholzer-Gee. “Endogenous Policy Decentralization: Testing the
Central Tenet of Economic Federalism.” The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 110,
No. 1, (Feb., 2002), pp. 1-36
D. International trade
Kolstad, pp. 254-266 or HSW, ch 13
W. Antweiler, B.R. Copeland, and M.S. Taylor. “Is Free Trade Good for the Environment?”
American Economic Review 91(4) (2001): 877-908.
S. Barrett, “Self-Enforcing International Environmental Agreements,” Oxford Economic
Papers 46 (1994): 878-894.
J. Ederington, A. Levinson, and J. Minier. “Footloose and Pollution-free.” Review of
Economics and Statistics. 87 (1) (2005) 92-99.
J. A. Frankel and A.K. Rose. “Is Trade Good or Bad for the Environment? Sorting Out the
Causality,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, February 2005, 87(1): 85–91.
Fischer and A.K. Fox. “Comparing Policies To Combat Emissions Leakage: Border Tax
12
Adjustments Versus Rebates,” RFF Discussion Paper No. 09-02. 2009.
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1345928
VIII. SAVING AND PORTFOLIO CHOICE
A. Overviews
Rosen, chapter 18.
D. Bernheim, “Taxation and Saving,” Handbook of Public Economics, vol. 3, Ch18;
Sections 2-3.
J. Poterba, “Taxation, Risk-Taking, and Household Portfolio Behavior,” Handbook of Public
Economics, vol. 3, chapter 17.
B. Optimal Taxation of Saving and the Choice of Tax Base
Auerbach and Hines, “Taxation and Economic Efficiency,” Handbook of Public Economics,
vol. 3, Chapter 21, Section 7.
David Altig, Alan Auerbach, Laurence Kotlikoff, Kent Smetters, and Jan Walliser,
“Simulating Fundamental Tax Reform in the U.S.,” American Economic Review, June
2001, 574-595.
Andrés Erosa and Martin Gervais, “Optimal Taxation in Life-Cycle Economies,” Journal of
Economic Theory, August 2002, 338-369.
Juan Carlos Conesa, Sagiri Kitao, and Dirk Krueger, 2009, “Taxing Capital? Not a Bad Idea
after All!” American Economic Review, March 2009, 25-48.
Alan Auerbach, “The Choice between Income and Consumption Taxes: A Primer,” in A.
Auerbach and D. Shaviro, eds., Institutional Foundations of Public Finance: Economic
and Legal Perspectives, Harvard University Press (2008), Chapter 2, 13-46.
James Banks and Peter Diamond, “The Base for Direct Taxation,” in J. Mirrlees et al., eds.,
Dimensions of Tax Design, Institute for Fiscal Studies (2010), Chapter 6, 548-648.
C. Tax-Favored Saving
R. Dammon, C. Spatt, and H. Zhang, Optimal Asset Location and Allocation with Taxable
and Tax-Deferred Investing, Journal of Finance, June 2004, 999-1037.
A. Gelber. How Do 401(k)s Affect Saving? Evidence from Changes in 401(k) Eligibility,
September 2009.
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D. The Behavior of High-Income Individuals: Taxation of Capital Gains and Estates
A. Auerbach and J. Siegel, “Capital Gains Realizations of the Rich and Sophisticated,”
American Economic Review, May 2000, 276-282.
A. Goolsbee, “What Happens When You Tax the Rich? Evidence from Executive
Compensation," Journal of Political Economy, 108 No. 2 (April, 2000): 352-78.
A. Goolsbee, "It's Not About the Money: Why Natural Experiments Don't Work on the
Rich," in J. Slemrod (ed.), Does Atlas Shrug? The Economic Consequences of Taxing
the Rich, (Cambridge and NewYork: Harvard University Press and the Russell Sage
Foundation, 2000) pp. 141-58.
R. Gordon and J. Slemrod, "Are 'Real' Responses to Taxes Simply Income Shifting
Between Corporate and Personal Tax Bases?" in J. Slemrod (ed.), Does Atlas Shrug?
The Economic Consequences of Taxing the Rich," (Cambridge and New York: Harvard
University Press and the Russell Sage Foundation, 2000) pp. 240-80.
Z. Ivković, J. Poterba, and S. Weisbenner, “Tax-Motivated Trading by Individual
Investors,” American Economic Review, December 2005, 1605-1630.
W. Kopczuk, “Bequest and Tax Planning: Evidence from Estate Tax Returns,” Quarterly
Journal of Economics, November 2007, 1801-1854.
IX. BEHAVIORAL EVIDENCE
C. de Bartolome, “Which Tax Rate Do People Use: Average or Marginal?” Journal of Public
Economics, 56: 79-96, 1995.
R. Chetty and E. Saez, “Teaching the Tax Code: Earnings Responses to an Experiment with
EITC Claimants,” NBER Working Paper No. 14836, April 2009.
E. Duflo et. al, “Saving Incentives for Low- and Middle-Income Families: Evidence from a
Field
Experiment with H&R Block,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121(4), 2006, 1311-1346.
A. Finkelstein, “EZ-Tax: Tax Salience and Tax Rates,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2009.
J. Slemrod, “The Role of Misconceptions in Support for Regressive Tax Reform,” National Tax
Journal, 59(1): 57-75, 2006.
X. CORPORATE TAXION, FINANCE AND INVESTMENT
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A. Overviews
Rosen, chapter 19.
A. Auerbach, “Taxation and Corporate Financial Policy,” Handbook of Public Economics,
vol. 3, Chapter 19.
K. Hassett and G. Hubbard, “Tax Policy and Business Investment,” Handbook of Public
Economics, vol. 3, Chapter 20.
R. Gordon and J. Hines, “International Taxation,” Handbook of Public Economics, vol. 4,
Chapter 28.
B. Corporate Financial Policy
A. Auerbach and K. Hassett, “On the Marginal Source of Investment Funds,” Journal of
Public Economics, January 2003, 205-232.
R. Chetty and E. Saez, “Dividend Taxes and Corporate Behavior: Evidence from the 2003
Dividend Tax Cut,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 2005, 791-833.
C. Investment Behavior
N. Bloom, R. Griffith, and J. Van Reenen, “Do R&D Tax Credits Work? Evidence from a
Panel of Countries 1979-1997,” Journal of Public Economics, July 2002, 1-31.
J. Cullen and R. Gordon, “Taxes and Entrepreneurial Risk-Taking: Theory and Evidence for
the U.S.,” Journal of Public Economics, August 2007, 1479-1505.
C. House and M. Shapiro, “Temporary Investment Tax Incentives: Theory with Evidence
from Bonus Depreciation,” American Economic Review, June 2008, 737-768.
D. International tax
D. Hartman, "Tax Policy and Foreign Direct Investment," Journal of Public Economics, 26,
1985, pp. 107-121.
R. Gordon, “Can Capital Income Taxes Survive in Open Economies?” Journal of Finance,
July 1992, 1159-1180.
H. Grubert and R. Altshuler “Corporate Taxes in the World Economy: Reforming the
Taxation of Cross-Border Income,” Fundamental Tax Reform: Issue, Choices, and
Implications, edited by John W. Diamond and George R. Zodrow, Cambridge MA: MIT
Press, forthcoming, 2008.
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R. Altshuler and H. Grubert "Repatriation Taxes, Repatriation Strategies and Multinational
Financial Policy," Journal of Public Economics, Volume 87(1), January 2003, 73-107.
R. Altshuler, H. Grubert and S. Newlon, "Has U.S. Investment Abroad Become More
Sensitive to Tax Rates?" in International Taxation and Multinational Activity, edited by
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