Discusses new empirical evidence on the role if income tax incentives in marital decisions and finds that over time studies show that taxes have a significant effect on the aggregate marriage rate. Finds that the marriage tax has an effect on marriages, timing of marriages, and divorce.

Uses discrete-time hazard function estimation methods to examine the factors that affect the probability that a state will enact a lottery, where the probability is assumed to depend upon on economic, fiscal, demographic, and political factors.

Laboratory experiments have proven increasingly useful in all areas of economics. This paper discusses the methodology of experimental economics, highlights its strengths and weaknesses, discusses many of the applications of experimental methods to public economics, and suggests topics in which...

Policymakers have directed much effort towards reducing or eliminating the so-called "marriage penalty" present in the U.S. individual income tax. However, because the marriage penalty is frequently misunderstood, many suggested remedies do little to reduce the penalty, and in some cases even...

Strategies for reducing tax evasion include stricter enforcement, but taxpayer responses to increased enforcement are difficult to measure with field data. We use experimental methods to examine individual compliance responses to advance information on audit probability and productivity. Our...

Uses data from laboratory experiments to estimate individual responses to tax, penalty, and audit rate changes, as well as to changes in government expenditures. The empirical results confirm some (although not all) theoretical predictions, and compare qualititatively with other empirical work

Uses household data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to calculate the real value of the so-called "marriage tax" or "marriage subsidy" in the federal individual income tax over the period 1967- to 1994. Discusses different ways the marriage tax can be calculated and discusses changes that...

Recently, gay and lesbian couples have gone to court to force the government to allow same-sex couples to marry. Largely unnoticed during the debates surrounding same-sex marriages are their economic consequences, including the impact on government tax collections. It is well-known that a...

The rapid growth in online commerce has eroded state sales tax bases. However, the extent of this reduction is difficult to estimate. In this paper we collect our own data from eBay.com on a “representative” commodity classification and a “typical” day. Our data consist of nearly 21,000...

Uses experimental methods to analyze the long run impact of an amnesty. Explains post-amnesy compliance is higher when an amnesty is accompanied by increased enforcement efforts than when enforcement increases without an amnesty.