In this paper we document and examine unusual fluctuations in the G-Fund, which is one of five funds available in a voluntary federal government employee retirement savings vehicle called the Thrift Savings Plan. The G-Fund is managed as “internally” held debt by the United States Department...

This research presents a simple procedure for improving state-specific estimates of marginal tax rates (MTR’s). Most research employing MTR’s follows a procedure developed by Koester and Kormendi (K&K, 1987). Unfortunately, the time-invariant nature of the K&K estimates precludes...

This paper uses comprehensive data on state and local tax and spending limitations for forty-nine states between 1976 and 1990 to estimate the effects of these limits on the fiscal relationships between state and local government. Results indicate that tax and spending limits on local...

This article examines the effects of state economic development incentives in the emerging ethanol industry. We compiled data on ethanol production capacity and subsidies/tax credits for all states for the years 1980–2007, a period that covers the complete emergence of the biofuel industry in...

Theoretic growth models and microeconomic evidence suggest that human capital accumulation is an important determinant of per capita income growth. However, early macroeconomic studies found a weak relationship between growth and human capital accumulation. While recent studies addressing...

We use detailed information from Wisconsin municipalities on annexation and tax increment finance (TIF) activity over the period 1990–2003 to determine whether TIF has encouraged annexation. Declaring a recently annexed area a TIF district increases the fiscal benefit of annexation since it...

A substantial body of theoretical and empirical evidence demonstrates that interregional competition for factors of production leads to convergence of per capita output. Is there an analogous process that leads to convergence of public sector activity? Skidmore et al. develop a model that is...