Evidence from oral history interviews is used to suggest the need to reevaluate our understanding of the dynamics of fertility decisions and behavior in the first half of the twentieth century. Those interviewed stressed their vague and haphazard approach to contraceptive use, in sharp contrast...

Increasingly, economic development experts are abandoning traditional approaches to economic development that rely on recruiting large enterprises with tax breaks, financial incentives, and other inducements. Instead, they are relying on building businesses from the ground up and supporting the...

Using the experience of Papua New Guinea as a case study, this paper examines the importance of political and administrative organization and electoral politics for fostering subnational autonomy and accountability in decentralized developing countries, and hence the success of fiscal...

Decentralized systems of government finance give rise to fiscal disparities due to interjurisdictional variations in tax bases and expenditure needs. Intergovernmental aid is used to address such disparities. This article explores changes in local tax capacity and intergovernmental aid resulting...

We expand the traditional tax incentive redundancy argument by investigating the implications of targeting incentives primarily to firms that would have invested anyway. Incorporating government revenue constraints, pliable tax officials, endogenous tax liabilities, and firms with heterogeneous...

Expansion and improvement of public services is essential to improving quality of life and productivity in developing countries. Some African countries have been diligent in expanding the infrastructure necessary to provide public services, but unfortunately, most have not done a very good job...

In this study, we examine the connection between the varied experiences of the transition countries in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and their diverse experiences in transforming their tax structures to be consistent with a market economy. In particular, we study whether complexity...

Current tax policies, while commonly thought to promote homeownership, have generally left low-income homeowners behind other homeowners. Using a number of simplifying assumptions, our estimates of lifetime homeowner tax subsidies suggest that the average homeowner in the lowest-income quintile...

There are a number of possible explanations for the seemingly irresponsible financial behavior of many Americans. In this paper we argue that an important explanation is simply ignorance: consumers often make poor financial decisions because they do not know how to make good ones. In particular,...

To date empirical studies of the economic effects of changes in state corporate income tax apportionment policies have used only highly aggregated, state-level data. This study uses data at the individual firm level, which is provided by a population of corporate income tax returns from the...