Small communities sometimes increase their local sales tax rate in order to maintain or expand public services. The question addressed here is what is the net effect of changing sales tax rates on revenues from sales taxes? Using both semiparametric and nonparametric regression, we find retail...

Small communities experiencing slow to negative growth sometimes increase their local sales tax rate in order to maintain or expand public services. A cross-sectional, time series model is used to investigate possible unintended consequences. Negative elasticities are found for tax rates above...

One frequently proposed policy is to consolidate rural school districts in order to save money by obtaining economies of size. The effects of school district size on both expenditures and standardized test scores are estimated for Oklahoma. Results indicate that economies of scale with respect...

This article determines the accuracy of quarterly land value forecasts provided by bankers through the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Survey of Agricultural Credit Conditions. Bankers’ qualitative forecasts of up, down, or no change are compared against actual, selfreported...

The overarching goal of nutrition labeling is to transform credence attributes into searchable cues, which would enable consumers to make appropriate choices at lower search costs. However, despite an abundance of food labeling information, asymmetries regarding appropriate healthy food choices...

Utilizing social norms is gaining momentum as a cost-eective mechanism to pro- mote sustainable behavior. We analyze household water data from multiple pilot programs for a company that provides information campaigns containing social comparisons of water use and per- sonalized conservation...

This is Selected Paper #2846. The title of this paper at the time the abstract was submitted was "Private Incentives for Investments to Mitigate Wildfire Risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface"