We investigate the effects of UK monetary policy from 1974-2001 using a structural vector autoregression with quarterly data. We adapt Uhlig's (2001) sign restriction identification methodology and show that shocks which can reasonably be described as monetary policy shocks have played a very...

Yields on long-term municipal bonds reflect both current and expected future tax rates. This paper derives expected changes in tax rates from yields on short- and long-term municipal bonds and examines the relationship between expected changes in tax rates and the financial condition of the...

In the United States wealth is highly concentrated and very un-equally distributed: the richest 1% hold one third of the total wealth in the economy. Understanding the determinants of wealth inequality is a challenge for many economic models. We summarize some key facts about the wealth...

Although the role of financial constraints on entrepreneurial choices has received considerable attention, the effects of these constraints on aggregate capital accumulation and wealth inequality are less known. Entrepreneurship is an important determinant of capital accumulation and wealth...

Both the supporters and opponents of President Bush's 2001-2003 tax cuts assert that the cuts are steps toward smaller government. That claim appears to misunderstand the notion of the size of government and rests on spending illusion - confusing the amount of the nominal dollar flows between...

Utilizing the Consumer Expenditure Survey and state-level variation in taxes, this study finds that prices for most models of new cars shift by more than the amount of a sales tax. The evidence of an overshifting of prices offers support for the recent models of tax incidence in imperfectly...

We investigate the effects of fiscal policy surprises for US data, using vector autoregressions. We overcome the difficulties that changes in fiscal policy may manifest themselves in variables other than fiscal variables first and that fiscal variables may respond "automatically" to business...

This analysis examines the arguments for and against the federal estate tax and concludes that the estate tax generates costs to taxpayers, the economy, and the environment that far exceed any potential benefits that it might arguably produce. This paper updates a previous Joint Economic...

The federal government has taxed intergenerational wealth transfers since 1916 through the federal estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes. This analysis examines the arguments for and against the federal estate tax and concludes that the estate tax generates costs to taxpayers, the economy...

This paper introduces a politico-economic model with a welfare state and immigration. In this model, policies on taxes and immigration are determined through a plurality voting system. While many studies of fiscal implications of immigration argue that relaxing immigration policies can...