期刊-NBER美国国民经济研究局-Summer1995_1_34页_1mb

MBER Reporter Summary (Summer 1995)

Core Content

The NBER Reporter for Summer 1995 provides an overview of research conducted by NBER's Public Economics Program, highlighting key studies on taxation, social insurance, public finance, and related policy issues. The report is structured into several sections, each focusing on a different area of public economics research.

Main Research Topics and Key Findings

1. Taxation and Individual Behavior

• Tax Policy Impact: The 1986 tax reform led to significant behavioral responses, particularly among high-income households, with increased taxable income reported.
• Labor Supply: Married women experienced notable increases in labor supply due to reduced marginal tax rates.
• Capital Gains and Fringe Benefits: Tax rates influence decisions to realize capital gains and to receive income as wages versus fringe benefits.
• Marriage Penalty: Researchers analyzed how the tax system affects the marriage penalty, suggesting it has evolved over time.
• Value-Added Tax (VAT): Studies examine whether VAT is progressive, considering both annual and lifetime incidence measures.
• 401(k) and IRA Plans: Research explores whether these retirement plans crowd out other forms of personal saving.

2. Tax Policy and Saving

• Personal Saving: Tax incentives and public policies significantly influence household saving behavior.
• Demographic Transition: Population aging has implications for retirement saving and asset markets.
• Household Saving Patterns: Empirical studies document saving behavior across age and cohort groups, and consider precautionary motives for saving.

3. Tax Policy and Corporation Behavior

• Corporate Decisions: Taxation affects corporate start-up decisions, R&D spending, and dividend policies.
• Security Transaction Taxes: These taxes influence financial markets and the cost of capital.
• Mutual Fund Performance: After-tax versus pre-tax returns are important measures for evaluating mutual fund performance.
• Corporate Organization: Taxation impacts the choice between corporate and non-corporate forms of business organization.

4. International Tax Policy

• Global Economy: Taxation plays a critical role in the location of R&D activities and capital investment in multinational firms.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): Tax policies influence the behavior of FDI, including repatriation taxes and their effects on multinational corporations.
• Capital Income Taxes: The viability of capital income taxes in open economies is a key topic, with implications for tax policy design.

5. Social Insurance

• Health Insurance: Research explores the effects of health insurance mandates, employer-provided insurance, and changes in payment systems (e.g., fee-for-service to prospective payment) on labor market behavior and health outcomes.
• Unemployment Insurance: It helps smooth consumption fluctuations and supports economic stability.
• Disability Insurance: Influences labor supply decisions of older workers.
• AFDC Eligibility: Programs allowing two unemployed parents to qualify for assistance impact their labor supply.
• Retirement Decisions: Social insurance outlays affect the annuitization of resources and retirement incentives.

6. State and Local Public Finance

• School Competition: Studies analyze how school competition affects public education outcomes and income distribution.
• Progressive Taxation: State income tax policies can redistribute income and affect after-tax income distribution.
• Police Spending: Research suggests that police hiring patterns, especially during elections, can influence crime rates.
• Capital Spending: Institutions for capital budgeting impact state capital spending, and infrastructure investments have spillover effects across regions.

7. Environmental Taxes

• External Costs: Environmental taxes on goods like alcohol, tobacco, and oil aim to internalize external costs and improve efficiency.
• Computable General Equilibrium Models: These models help assess the broader economic impacts of environmental taxation.
• Tax Design with Externalities: Research focuses on optimal tax design in the presence of environmental externalities.

8. Public Policy and Housing Markets

• Mortgage Indebtedness: Studies examine the determinants of household mortgage behavior and the role of default insurance.
• Housing and Wealth Accumulation: The impact of housing markets on the wealth patterns of younger households is explored.
• Policy Influence: Housing policies affect both wealth accumulation and economic stability.

9. Political Economy of Tax and Spending Policies

• Electoral Accountability: Term limits and other electoral institutions affect economic policy choices.
• Fiscal Institutions: Constraints and institutions influence deficit policy and the political economy of the welfare state.
• Natural Experiments: The exogeneity of state-level policy changes is an important consideration in evaluating the effects of tax and spending policies.

Key Information

• The NBER is a private, nonprofit research organization established in 1920, dedicated to the quantitative analysis of the American economy.
• The Public Economics Program has been actively involved in studying various aspects of taxation, social insurance, and public finance.
• Researchers have contributed to policy discussions on tax reform, health care, social insurance, and international tax policies.
• The report includes summaries of working papers and reprints, many of which are cited in academic journals and policy discussions.
• The NBER emphasizes the importance of empirical studies in understanding the real-world effects of economic policies.

Conclusion

This report underscores the NBER's ongoing commitment to analyzing the economic effects of public policies through rigorous empirical and theoretical research. It highlights the program's diverse focus areas, including taxation, social insurance, public finance, and environmental policy, and illustrates how these studies inform broader economic debates and policy decisions.