One feels constrained to step lightly in an examination of the Laf- fer curve. Laffer contends that higher tax rates, by removing incen- tive, will discourage work, lead to less output, and thereby reduce government’s total tax revenue. Surely the contention that lower tax rates will...

Max Hartwell’s paper gives us a picture of the good old days. Hav- ing just paid my taxes, or at any rate the federal-income-taxportion of them, Jam not inclined to view favorablyanyleveloftaxesother than none at all. Still, the paper portrays the closest we’ve come in modern times...

Since the early 1870s, when John D. Rockefeller began assembling Standard Oil of New Jersey, the large, usually American-owned and -managed, oil companies have been the most famous and con- troversial business enterprises in the United States as well as throughout most of the world.’ Even...

There are about 1,605,000 acres in about 300 barrier islands and spits in the United States.’ They rim the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Cape Cod to the Mexican border and vary from small units of 50 acres or less to islands of more than 100,000 acres. Some are lit- tle more than elevated...

The proposition that increases in tax rates discourage market- sector production and may therefore, beyond a certain level, be counterproductive in raising tax revenue is an old issue in the eco- nomic literature. Its recent revival has generated considerable con- troversy and interest among...

In order for a society to use its resources efficiently, property rights must be well defined, enforced, and transferable. By now, this basic conclusion of the modern property rights literature needs little defense. Examples abound of the resource waste that occurs when actors do not bear the...