In economics there is presently an almost revolutionary development. The direct measurement of subjective welfare challenges traditional economics, inspires it, and opens new avenues for scientific research. The approaches and possibilities of an economic analysis of happiness are shown and...

The taxation of goods and services by a state is considered efficient when consumer welfare is maximized subject to the condition that the local government raises a specified amount of revenues. According to the Ramsey principle of optimal taxation of commodities, an efficient commodity tax...

The paper examines the manner in which federal tax expenditure estimates are prepared by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) and the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis (OTA). The paper finds that the current cash flow method does not measure the actual benefits of...

A central finding of the modern labor market literature is that labor supply responses tend to be concentrated along the extensive margin (labor force participation) rather than the intensive margin (hours of work). Yet, the literature on the marginal cost of public funds (MCF) focuses solely on...

Do ethnic enclaves assist or hinder immigrants in their economic integration? In this paper we examine the effect of ‘ethnic capital’ (e.g. ethnic network and ethnic concentration) on immigrants' earnings assimilation. We adopt a "spatial autoregressive network approach" to construct a...

Flexible work arrangements and retirement options provide one solution for the challenges of unemployment and underemployment, aging populations, and unsustainable public pension systems in welfare states around the world. We examine the relationships between well-being and job satisfaction on...

While German public finances have remained more resilient than other EU countries throughout the recent crisis, fiscal flexibility has become increasingly limited for its regional governments which deliver most public service. The recent introduction of a balanced-budget requirement (‘debt...

Do ethnic enclaves assist or hinder immigrants in their economic integration? In this paper we examine the effect of 'ethnic capital' (e.g. ethnic network and ethnic concentration) on immigrants' earnings assimilation. We adopt a "spatial autoregressive network approach" to construct a dynamic...

The conventional model of immigrant earnings does not account for the correlation of outcomes across immigrant ethnic networks. We apply a spatial autoregressive network approach to account for the spill-over effects of migrant ethnic group economic resources and labour market outcomes. We...

The equilibrium conditions for an economic system that produces output with several factors of production and which is subject to technological constraints are derived. Optimization of either output minus cost or integrated utility yields the conditions that output elasticities must be equal to...