This Article explains, updates and generalizes Cooper (1979), which had labeled the estate tax a voluntary tax. The tax has remained quot;voluntaryquot; in the sense of being easily avoidable, even by those engaging in activities within the tax's ostensible normative target (i.e., significant...

Public finance is one of the oldest sub-fields in economics and social science, behavioral economics among the youngest. While the field of behavioral finance has received much attention, behavioral public finance has received far less. Yet the absence of any simple arbitrage mechanism in the...

This paper examines the relationship between attitudes on potential uses of the budget surplus and gender. Survey results show relatively weak support overall for using a projected surplus to reduce taxes, with respondents much likelier to prefer increased social spending on education or social...