National Tax Journal articles from December 2002

National Tax Journal archives from December 2002

Pre-retirement lump-sum pension distributions and retirement income security: evidence from the health and retirement study.
December 1, 2002... An important issue in the design of pension systems is the extent to which workers have access to pension assets upon job change. The federal tax code discourages such cash settlements before retirement or disability in a number of ways. First,...

Does the median voter consume too much water? Analyzing the redistributive role of residential water bills. (California)
December 1, 2002... According to allocative efficiency criteria, water in the American West is often underpriced in urban sales. While the costs of subsidies for water provided by large federal projects (typically to agricultural users) are spread over a wide...

Evidence on subsequent filing from the state of Michigan's income tax amnesty.
December 1, 2002... This study provides empirical evidence on the subsequent filing rate by participants in the 1986 Michigan income tax amnesty. Although 35 states and the District of Columbia have conducted tax amnesties, many of them more than once, not much is...

State and local government choices in fiscal redistribution.
December 1, 2002... While it is widely held that state and local governments should not pursue income redistribution as a budgetary objective, state and local governments do engage in budget policies that have an explicit redistributive objective. On the...

Charitable giving in transition economies: evidence from Russia.
December 1, 2002... Philanthropy has received substantial treatment in the economics literature over the past 25 years. To date, more than 60 empirical articles have been published on the price and income determinants of donative behavior. The principal questions...

Popular substitution effects: excess burden estimates for general sales taxes.
December 1, 2002... Commodity exemptions for general sales taxes in the United States are very popular. Since an exemption moves consumer purchases toward the exempt item and away from taxed items--introducing substitution effects into consumer demand--exemption...

Pre-retirement lump-sum pension distributions and retirement income security: evidence from the health and retirement study.
December 1, 2002... INTRODUCTION An important issue in the design of pension systems is the extent to which workers have access to pension assets upon job change. The federal tax code discourages such cash settlements before retirement or disability in a...

Does the median voter consume too much water? Analyzing the redistributive role of residential water bills. (California)
December 1, 2002... INTRODUCTION Some of the most important natural resource management questions facing the United States today involve water-use in the arid western states. Over the last 65 years, growing urban populations and the devotion of water...

Evidence on subsequent filing from the state of Michigan's income tax amnesty.
December 1, 2002... INTRODUCTION Since the mid-1980s, the District of Columbia and 35 states in the United States have conducted tax amnesties (U.S. Congress, 1998). Taxpayers who participate in these programs typically are granted immunity from prosecution...

State and local government choices in fiscal redistribution.
December 1, 2002... INTRODUCTION A well-traveled normative principle of fiscal federalism is that state and local governments should not pursue income redistribution as a budgetary objective. The conventional theory (Musgrave, 1959; Oates, 1972; Ladd and...

Charitable giving in transition economies: evidence from Russia.
December 1, 2002... "Voluntary social insurance, development of additional forms of social security and charity shall be encouraged." --Article 39, section 3, The Russian Constitution (1) INTRODUCTION Philanthropy has received substantial treatment in...

Popular substitution effects: excess burden estimates for general sales taxes.
December 1, 2002... INTRODUCTION The typical general sales tax in the United States is riddled with commodity exemptions. Food-for-home consumption (hereafter home food), residential utilities and services are all examples of consumption items that are spared...

What every public finance economist needs to know about health economics: recent advances and unresolved questions.
December 1, 2002... INTRODUCTION The standard theoretical framework of health economics, as summarized in public finance undergraduate textbooks (e.g., Rosen, 1995, chapter 11), draws attention to four problems. First, illness and accidents are unpredictable...

Demographic Change and Fiscal Policy.(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Edited by ALAN J. AUERBACH and RONALD D. LEE. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001, Pp. 446. Demographic Change and Fiscal Policy contains the finished papers and selected discussant comments from a conference held at the...

Tax Increment Financing and Economic Development: Uses, Structures, and Impact.(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Edited by CRAIG L. JOHNSON and JOYCE Y. MAN. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001. Pp. 276. Eight years ago Paul Courant (1994) r used the pages of this journal to pose the excellent question "How would you know a good...

International Taxation and Multinational Activity.(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Edited by JAMES R. HINES JR. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001, Pp. 274. Within the last three decades, federal and subnational governments around the world have become increasingly appreciative of the benefits of foreign direct...