{"title":"Better State Lotteries","authors":"C. Clotfelter","doi":"10.1177/10911421231206030","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Over the last three decades, a little-noted change has taken place in state lotteries. This change is an increase in the average payout rate, the share of sales that is returned to players in the form of prizes. Because it reduces the rate of implicit taxation on lottery purchases and its accompanying welfare loss, this change has inadvertently made lotteries better, or at least less objectionable. This paper reviews the normative case for reducing the implied tax, documents the rise in payout rates across the United States, offers an explanation for that rise, notes the starring role played by instant games, illustrates its effect on the regressivity of lottery finance, and documents the surprising correlation between the price of instant games and their payout rates.","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"55 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421231206030","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
Over the last three decades, a little-noted change has taken place in state lotteries. This change is an increase in the average payout rate, the share of sales that is returned to players in the form of prizes. Because it reduces the rate of implicit taxation on lottery purchases and its accompanying welfare loss, this change has inadvertently made lotteries better, or at least less objectionable. This paper reviews the normative case for reducing the implied tax, documents the rise in payout rates across the United States, offers an explanation for that rise, notes the starring role played by instant games, illustrates its effect on the regressivity of lottery finance, and documents the surprising correlation between the price of instant games and their payout rates.
期刊介绍：
Public Finance Review is a professional forum devoted to US policy-oriented economic research and theory, which focuses on a variety of allocation, distribution and stabilization functions within the public-sector economy. Economists, policy makers, political scientists, and researchers all rely on Public Finance Review, to bring them the most up-to-date information on the ever changing US public finance system, and to help them put policies and research into action. Public Finance Review not only presents rigorous empirical and theoretical papers on public economic policies, but also examines and critiques their impact and consequences. The journal analyzes the nature and function of evolving US governmental fiscal policies at the national, state and local levels.
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