This paper examines three sources of the fluctuations in real interest rates during the past three decades: changes in budget deficits, changes in tax rules, and changes in monetary policy. The evidence indicates that budget deficits and monetary policy have had a strong influence on the level...

This study examines the potential effects on personal savings of alternative types of tax rules. The analysis makes use of two extensive samples of information on individual savings and financial income: the 1972 Consumer Expenditure Survey and a stratified random sample of 26,000 individual tax...

This paper examines the investment effects of tax subsidies for which some assets and not others are eligible. Distortionary tax subsidies encourage firms to concentrate investments in tax-favored assets profitability of investment and reducing payoffs to bondholders in the event of default....

This paper examines the impact of the 1986 change in U.S. interest allocation rules on the investment and financing decisions of American multinationals. The 1986 change reduced the tax deductibility of the interest expenses of firms with excess foreign tax credits. The resulting increase in the...

The tax reforms of the 1980s were the most substantial tax changes since the dramatic expansion of personal taxation during World War II. This paper. which was written as part of the NBER project on American economic policy in the 1980s. examines the nature of these changes and discusses the...

Although the tax reforms of the 1980s substantially lowered the excess burden caused by high marginal tax rates, there were also significant adverse effects on incentives to save and to invest in business plant and equipment. Effective tax rates on. real capital gains and real net interest...