We study the effect of alcohol excise taxes on alcohol‐related fatal traffic crashes by examining two large increases in excise taxes in Illinois that occurred in 1999 and in 2009. Using the synthetic control method, we do not find evidence that the tax increases led to a long‐term reduction...

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has often been the subject of controversy. Historically, the most prominent critics have argued that the CPI overstates changes in the cost of living. Recently, however, some in the investment community and business media have argued that the CPI is an...

In this paper we provide new and detailed evidence on the impact on the U.S. CPI of the appearance and growth of new types of product outlets. Using actual CPI microdata for 2002-2007, we find that the changing mix of outlets had a statistically significantly negative impact on average prices in...

While many studies find that the tax-price elasticity of giving exceeds unity, several recent studies find the contrary. This is important because it can be shown that if the elasticity exceeds one, then allowing taxpayers to deduct charitable giving from their taxable income is efficient in the...

In contrast to earlier studies, recent research finds that charitable contributions are tax-price inelastic, suggesting that the itemized deduction for contributions loses more tax revenue than it increases in contributions. The estimates from parametric methods are similar to those in earlier...

This paper develops a new kernel test for neglected nonlinearity in the conditional expectation function, and compares this test to the Ramsey RESET test (1969) and the Neural Net test of Lee, White, and Granger (1993). Like the Neural Test and the Ramsey Reset Test, this Kernel test is a...

This article investigates the heterogeneity in the tax elasticities of personal capital gains realizations. We first examine the skewed nature of both capital gains assets ownership and their realizations. We then briefly review earlier studies, including Dowd, McClelland, and Muthitacharoen...