Pub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1177/10911421221105043
R. Sobel, J. Clark, Reagan N. Sobel
There is a well-documented “natural resource curse” whereby the presence of immobile natural resources leads to weaker economic performance and a deterioration in the quality of economic institutions and governance. We propose the novel hypothesis that a similar curse exists for historic resources such as the Egyptian Pyramids, Roman Colosseum, and Gettysburg Battlefield. These captive wealth-producing resources are also immobile and cannot flee from oppressive or inefficient government policies, enabling governments to levy high taxes, impose burdensome regulations, and expropriate property for preservation. Historic resources are therefore also associated with weaker economic performance, increased government corruption, and lower economic freedom.
{"title":"The Curse of Historic Resources","authors":"R. Sobel, J. Clark, Reagan N. Sobel","doi":"10.1177/10911421221105043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421221105043","url":null,"abstract":"There is a well-documented “natural resource curse” whereby the presence of immobile natural resources leads to weaker economic performance and a deterioration in the quality of economic institutions and governance. We propose the novel hypothesis that a similar curse exists for historic resources such as the Egyptian Pyramids, Roman Colosseum, and Gettysburg Battlefield. These captive wealth-producing resources are also immobile and cannot flee from oppressive or inefficient government policies, enabling governments to levy high taxes, impose burdensome regulations, and expropriate property for preservation. Historic resources are therefore also associated with weaker economic performance, increased government corruption, and lower economic freedom.","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"50 1","pages":"279 - 306"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44364258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1177/10911421221094348
Kawika Pierson, Jon C. Thompson, F. Thompson
One of the most important predictor variables in multistate studies of American municipal cash reserves is the state in which a municipality is located, and to date no research has explored why. In this paper, we show that two broad categories of variables can account for a large fraction of this puzzle. Average differences in financial variables and state-to-state institutional differences combine to absorb over 80% of the importance of state fixed effects, with financial variables mostly accounting for why cities in some states save less than the national average, and institutional variables doing a better job of accounting for why cities in some states save more than the national average.
{"title":"Accounting for the State Fixed Effect for Municipal Cash Reserves: The Role of Financial and Institutional Variables","authors":"Kawika Pierson, Jon C. Thompson, F. Thompson","doi":"10.1177/10911421221094348","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421221094348","url":null,"abstract":"One of the most important predictor variables in multistate studies of American municipal cash reserves is the state in which a municipality is located, and to date no research has explored why. In this paper, we show that two broad categories of variables can account for a large fraction of this puzzle. Average differences in financial variables and state-to-state institutional differences combine to absorb over 80% of the importance of state fixed effects, with financial variables mostly accounting for why cities in some states save less than the national average, and institutional variables doing a better job of accounting for why cities in some states save more than the national average.","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"50 1","pages":"169 - 205"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43540970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1177/10911421221093664
J. Pavlik, Maria Tackett
Does it pay to be a locale of political importance? Political business cycle theory predicts that the executive has an incentive to manipulate policy to increase the chances of their party remaining in office. In particular, core counties (those that vote for the current administration) have been shown to enjoy disproportionately higher federal spending. In this paper, we explore how this funding affects the well-being of an area by estimating the effect of presidential particularism on governmental transfers and (productive) income per-capita using county-level data from 1993 to 2012. We find that transfer payments tend to be higher and income lower in counties that vote for the current administration. These findings are robust across a wide number of specifications including fixed effects, first differences, a first differenced model with county-specific time trends, and a matching analysis. Moreover, results hold when examining the subset of counties that only voted for a single party throughout the entire sample where the treatment (whether the county voted for the current administration) is largely exogenous to the county in question.
{"title":"The Effect of Presidential Particularism on Economic Well-Being: A County-Level Analysis","authors":"J. Pavlik, Maria Tackett","doi":"10.1177/10911421221093664","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421221093664","url":null,"abstract":"Does it pay to be a locale of political importance? Political business cycle theory predicts that the executive has an incentive to manipulate policy to increase the chances of their party remaining in office. In particular, core counties (those that vote for the current administration) have been shown to enjoy disproportionately higher federal spending. In this paper, we explore how this funding affects the well-being of an area by estimating the effect of presidential particularism on governmental transfers and (productive) income per-capita using county-level data from 1993 to 2012. We find that transfer payments tend to be higher and income lower in counties that vote for the current administration. These findings are robust across a wide number of specifications including fixed effects, first differences, a first differenced model with county-specific time trends, and a matching analysis. Moreover, results hold when examining the subset of counties that only voted for a single party throughout the entire sample where the treatment (whether the county voted for the current administration) is largely exogenous to the county in question.","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"50 1","pages":"135 - 168"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44523857","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1177/10911421221093412
H. Jung
The government budget should be operated efficiently and democratically to promote economic development and social welfare. This article investigates the claim that budget transparency can improve budget efficiency. Based on the 2017 introduction of the online open budget system in South Korea as an example, the difference-in-difference examination reveals that budget transparency reduces the size of the unused budget, an indicator of budget inefficiency. A battery of robustness tests supports this result. Moreover, improving budget efficiency has a more significant effect when budget projects are at the risk of agency problems. Our findings suggest that budget transparency through the online open budget system can enhance budget efficiency by encouraging the public's participation and alleviating the principal-agent problem.
{"title":"Online Open Budget: The Effects of Budget Transparency on Budget Efficiency","authors":"H. Jung","doi":"10.1177/10911421221093412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421221093412","url":null,"abstract":"The government budget should be operated efficiently and democratically to promote economic development and social welfare. This article investigates the claim that budget transparency can improve budget efficiency. Based on the 2017 introduction of the online open budget system in South Korea as an example, the difference-in-difference examination reveals that budget transparency reduces the size of the unused budget, an indicator of budget inefficiency. A battery of robustness tests supports this result. Moreover, improving budget efficiency has a more significant effect when budget projects are at the risk of agency problems. Our findings suggest that budget transparency through the online open budget system can enhance budget efficiency by encouraging the public's participation and alleviating the principal-agent problem.","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"50 1","pages":"91 - 119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45013141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1177/10911421221094026
Cameron A. Shelton
Countries with higher old-age dependency rates tend to rely less heavily on income taxes and more heavily on consumption taxes. We investigate this relationship in a panel of US states. To address endogeneity in a sub-national context due to migration, we use lagged in-state births to develop a new instrument for old-age dependency which is shown to be strong and relevant to the results. In an unbalanced panel spanning 1979–2013, we do find a negative relationship between old-age dependency ratio and income tax reliance. But, though persistent across specifications, it is not statistically significant under either ordinary least squares or instrumental variables despite strong instruments and a healthy sample size. We speculate as to what underlying mechanism might deliver a correlation that is robust among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries but tepid among US states.
{"title":"Age Demographics and the Tax Mix in US States","authors":"Cameron A. Shelton","doi":"10.1177/10911421221094026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421221094026","url":null,"abstract":"Countries with higher old-age dependency rates tend to rely less heavily on income taxes and more heavily on consumption taxes. We investigate this relationship in a panel of US states. To address endogeneity in a sub-national context due to migration, we use lagged in-state births to develop a new instrument for old-age dependency which is shown to be strong and relevant to the results. In an unbalanced panel spanning 1979–2013, we do find a negative relationship between old-age dependency ratio and income tax reliance. But, though persistent across specifications, it is not statistically significant under either ordinary least squares or instrumental variables despite strong instruments and a healthy sample size. We speculate as to what underlying mechanism might deliver a correlation that is robust among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries but tepid among US states.","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"50 1","pages":"120 - 130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45351371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1177/10911421221093142
Jinsol Park
The implicit idea underlying theories of fiscal federalism is that fiscal decentralization can change the composition of government expenditure. That is, regardless of whether decentralization enables governments to more readily reflect citizen preferences regarding spending categories or fosters a race to the bottom with reduced taxation and public service levels, change in the composition of government expenditure may ensue. This study indirectly tests the impact of decentralization with respect to allocative efficiency by examining the relationship between fiscal decentralization and expenditure composition. Utilizing data from 224 local governments in South Korea over the period 2008–2018, the study finds that fiscal decentralization exerts downward pressure on welfare expenditure and that it tends to shift spending from the current to the capital account. Specifically, it finds that it is mainly revenue-side decentralization that affects the allocation of government expenditure.
{"title":"Fiscal Decentralization and the Composition of Local Government Expenditure: Evidence from South Korea","authors":"Jinsol Park","doi":"10.1177/10911421221093142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421221093142","url":null,"abstract":"The implicit idea underlying theories of fiscal federalism is that fiscal decentralization can change the composition of government expenditure. That is, regardless of whether decentralization enables governments to more readily reflect citizen preferences regarding spending categories or fosters a race to the bottom with reduced taxation and public service levels, change in the composition of government expenditure may ensue. This study indirectly tests the impact of decentralization with respect to allocative efficiency by examining the relationship between fiscal decentralization and expenditure composition. Utilizing data from 224 local governments in South Korea over the period 2008–2018, the study finds that fiscal decentralization exerts downward pressure on welfare expenditure and that it tends to shift spending from the current to the capital account. Specifically, it finds that it is mainly revenue-side decentralization that affects the allocation of government expenditure.","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"50 1","pages":"62 - 90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43953516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1177/10911421221094595
J. Slemrod, Tejaswi Velayudhan
We take stock of what is known about the consequences of actual value-added tax (VAT) systems, nearly 100 years since its conception. We benchmark it to the tax it most often replaced—the retail sales tax (RST). We do this not because we advocate a return to the RST, but because it allows us to evaluate the performance of two tax instruments in actual practice instead of comparing them to their idealized versions, which are never achieved. Doing so highlights different areas of focus than traditional comparisons to the “good” VAT. Like the RST, the VAT is weak at the final stage and technological advances that ameliorate VAT issues could also be applied to the RST. VAT introduces new evasion opportunities not possible in an RST such as invoice mills and carousel fraud. We propose new metrics and a research agenda to evaluate the “health” of the real VAT.
{"title":"The VAT at 100: A Retrospective Survey and Agenda for Future Research","authors":"J. Slemrod, Tejaswi Velayudhan","doi":"10.1177/10911421221094595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421221094595","url":null,"abstract":"We take stock of what is known about the consequences of actual value-added tax (VAT) systems, nearly 100 years since its conception. We benchmark it to the tax it most often replaced—the retail sales tax (RST). We do this not because we advocate a return to the RST, but because it allows us to evaluate the performance of two tax instruments in actual practice instead of comparing them to their idealized versions, which are never achieved. Doing so highlights different areas of focus than traditional comparisons to the “good” VAT. Like the RST, the VAT is weak at the final stage and technological advances that ameliorate VAT issues could also be applied to the RST. VAT introduces new evasion opportunities not possible in an RST such as invoice mills and carousel fraud. We propose new metrics and a research agenda to evaluate the “health” of the real VAT.","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"50 1","pages":"4 - 32"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46469258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1177/10911421221097464
T. Scott Findley
I would like to announce and welcome Gary Wagner as the new Co-Editor of Public Finance Review (PFR). Gary and I will co-share editor-in-chief responsibilities going forward. He is a highly qualified researcher to fill this position with a long history of conducting and publishing public finance and public economics research in many of the best journal outlets in these areas, such as Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, National Tax Journal, European Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Law & Economics, Public Choice, and Public Finance Review, to name only a few. Gary earned a PhD in Economics from West Virginia University, and he currently holds an endowed chair position (Acadiana Business Economist Endowed Chair) at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Gary also comes to this position with a solid level of prior editorial experience. Please join me in welcoming Gary Wagner to the editorial team of PFR!
我想宣布并欢迎Gary Wagner担任《公共财政评论》(PFR)的新任联合编辑。加里和我今后将共同承担主编的责任。他是一位高素质的研究员,在这些领域的许多最好的期刊上从事和发表公共财政和公共经济学研究有着悠久的历史,如《经济行为与组织杂志》、《国家税务杂志》、,仅举几个例子。Gary获得了西弗吉尼亚大学经济学博士学位,目前在路易斯安那大学拉斐特分校担任捐赠主席职位(Acadiana Business Economist endowed chair)。Gary也有着扎实的编辑经验。请和我一起欢迎Gary Wagner加入PFR的编辑团队!
{"title":"Official Welcome to New Co-Editor of Public Finance Review","authors":"T. Scott Findley","doi":"10.1177/10911421221097464","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421221097464","url":null,"abstract":"I would like to announce and welcome Gary Wagner as the new Co-Editor of Public Finance Review (PFR). Gary and I will co-share editor-in-chief responsibilities going forward. He is a highly qualified researcher to fill this position with a long history of conducting and publishing public finance and public economics research in many of the best journal outlets in these areas, such as Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, National Tax Journal, European Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Law & Economics, Public Choice, and Public Finance Review, to name only a few. Gary earned a PhD in Economics from West Virginia University, and he currently holds an endowed chair position (Acadiana Business Economist Endowed Chair) at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Gary also comes to this position with a solid level of prior editorial experience. Please join me in welcoming Gary Wagner to the editorial team of PFR!","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"50 1","pages":"3 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43260963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-01DOI: 10.1177/10911421221077213
G. Canavire-Bacarreza, María Cecilia Deza, Osmel Manzano, Alejandro Puerta
Insufficient tax revenues has been one of the most pervasive restrictions on investment in the social and economic infrastructure needed to close the development gaps in emerging markets (EM). To assess the potential for increasing tax collection, the literature has emphasized the concept of tax capacity and tax effort. Conceptually, tax effort is modeled as an inefficiency term with both time-varying and time-invariant components. These are commonly estimated through OLS or stochastic frontier analysis techniques. However, these strategies provide only point estimates and are limited in their ability to break down tax effort into time-varying and time-invariant components. We estimate tax effort for a balanced panel of 108 countries for which data were available from 2002 to 2017, using a Bayesian strategy that allows us to calculate the invariant inefficiency as an upper bound for a country’s tax effort. We also show that the GTRE model from Tsionas and Kumbhakar (2014) allows for more precise estimates, providing powerful tools for more informed fiscal planning.
{"title":"Revisiting tax effort in emerging markets","authors":"G. Canavire-Bacarreza, María Cecilia Deza, Osmel Manzano, Alejandro Puerta","doi":"10.1177/10911421221077213","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421221077213","url":null,"abstract":"Insufficient tax revenues has been one of the most pervasive restrictions on investment in the social and economic infrastructure needed to close the development gaps in emerging markets (EM). To assess the potential for increasing tax collection, the literature has emphasized the concept of tax capacity and tax effort. Conceptually, tax effort is modeled as an inefficiency term with both time-varying and time-invariant components. These are commonly estimated through OLS or stochastic frontier analysis techniques. However, these strategies provide only point estimates and are limited in their ability to break down tax effort into time-varying and time-invariant components. We estimate tax effort for a balanced panel of 108 countries for which data were available from 2002 to 2017, using a Bayesian strategy that allows us to calculate the invariant inefficiency as an upper bound for a country’s tax effort. We also show that the GTRE model from Tsionas and Kumbhakar (2014) allows for more precise estimates, providing powerful tools for more informed fiscal planning.","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"49 1","pages":"845 - 873"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48544662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-01DOI: 10.1177/10911421211064676
Pengju Zhang, Ling Zhu
This paper examines the effects of states’ Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on hospitals’ financial performance in the United States. Extending previous studies that primarily focus on the immediate short-term impact of the ACA's Medicaid expansion, we investigate if the fiscal effects persist over a longer-term and if the fiscal effects vary across different hospitals. Using panel data on hospitals from 2011 to 2018, we find that hospitals’ financial performance, as gauged either by Medicaid net revenue and uncompensated care cost or by multiple profitability measures, improves in Medicaid expansion states, and the positive effects continue over time. In addition, there are significant heterogeneities in the fiscal effects across different hospitals. Hospitals’ profitability improves the most in the public sector, rural areas, and less wealthy counties.
{"title":"Does the ACA Medicaid Expansion Affect Hospitals’ Financial Performance?","authors":"Pengju Zhang, Ling Zhu","doi":"10.1177/10911421211064676","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10911421211064676","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the effects of states’ Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on hospitals’ financial performance in the United States. Extending previous studies that primarily focus on the immediate short-term impact of the ACA's Medicaid expansion, we investigate if the fiscal effects persist over a longer-term and if the fiscal effects vary across different hospitals. Using panel data on hospitals from 2011 to 2018, we find that hospitals’ financial performance, as gauged either by Medicaid net revenue and uncompensated care cost or by multiple profitability measures, improves in Medicaid expansion states, and the positive effects continue over time. In addition, there are significant heterogeneities in the fiscal effects across different hospitals. Hospitals’ profitability improves the most in the public sector, rural areas, and less wealthy counties.","PeriodicalId":46919,"journal":{"name":"PUBLIC FINANCE REVIEW","volume":"49 1","pages":"779 - 814"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46214144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}