Empirical research in public economics, including our own, often uses variation in state and local taxes as an empirical laboratory to estimate causal relationships. A key concern is that other taxes might change at the same time. To assess this concern, we develop a dataset of state (1977-2022)...

Eine nachhaltige Finanzpolitik kann man nur Bayern und Sachsen bescheinigen. Den übrigen Bundesländern gelingt es nicht, ihre Schulden im Verhältnis zum Bruttoinlandsprodukt zu stabilisieren oder zurückzufahren. Größter Haushaltssünder ist Berlin mit einer Nachhaltigkeitslücke von 6,38...

When state and local governments engage in balanced budget changes in taxes and spending, what fiscal multiplier effects do such policies have on creating local jobs? Traditionally, the view has been that possible job-creation effects of such state and local "demand-side" policies are smaller,...

The objective of this paper is to explore various relationships between self-reported life satisfaction and state public finance in the U.S. The paper focuses on both government expenditure and revenue (especially tax) structures. This paper is the first of its kind to examine the relationship...

Mit den Grundlagen für den kanadischen Föderalismus im CONSTITUTION ACT von 1867 wurden bereits mit der Staatsgründung die Machtbefugnisse und Einnahmenmöglichkeiten der Bundes- sowie der Provinzregierungen geregelt. Demnach verfügen die kanadischen Provinzen über relativ ausgedehnte...

We study the fiscal and tax response to intergovernmental grants, exploiting quasi-experimental variation within Germany’s fiscal equalization scheme triggered by Census revisions of official population counts. Municipal budgets do not adjust instantly. Instead, spending and investments adapt...

We study the fiscal and tax response to intergovernmental grants, exploiting quasi-experimental variation within Germany's fiscal equalization scheme triggered by Census revisions of official population counts. Municipal budgets do not adjust instantly. Instead, spending and investments adapt...

We study the impact of fiscal revenue shocks on local fiscal policy. We focus on the very volatile revenues from the immovable property gains tax in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and analyze fiscal behavior following large and rare positive and negative revenue shocks. We apply causal...

We study the impact of fiscal revenue shocks on local fiscal policy. We focus on the very volatile revenues from the immovable property gains tax in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and analyze fiscal behavior following large and rare positive and negative revenue shocks. We apply causal...