Do taxes drive entrepreneurs out of business? This paper uses panel data on self-employed workers to examine whether differential income and payroll taxes affect their decisions to continue operating or to close their doors and take wage-and-salary jobs. I exploit statutory variations in the tax...

We use a 12–year panel of tax return data to assess whether or not taxes affect the duration of entrepreneurial activities. Our study is the first to examine the effects of tax rates on exit decisions using duration–analysis techniques. We find convincing evidence that cutting marginal tax...

This paper extends the quantitative estimates of sales tax revenue losses from electronic commerce in a variety of ways. First, we place the effects of e-commerce in the context of general sales tax base trends, arguing that e-commerce is only one of the factors reducing sales tax bases. Second,...

The United States has experienced a revival of interest in entrepreneurs. While much of the public fascination has focused on "dot com" millionaires and similar high-profile phenomena, a coincident surge in research has focused on the economic foundations of this boom. In executing their...

Bruce D., Deskins J. A., Hill B. C. and Rork J. C. (Small) business activity and state economic growth: does size matter?, Regional Studies. Using a 1988-2002 panel of US state-level data, the impact of small and large business activity on gross state product (GSP), state personal income (SPI),...

We examine the relative importance of tax rates and macroeconomic fluctuations in explaining the share of national adjusted gross income (AGI) reported by the top 0.5% of all taxpayers. Results indicate that cutting the top income or capital gains tax rate would increase the top AGI share but...

Purpose – Policy makers have long been interested in whether tax policies can be used to encourage entrepreneurial activity, but prior studies have produced ambiguous results. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether tax rates affect the decision to begin a new entrepreneurial...