This article focuses on the total tax burden faced by wage earners and uses wages as a surrogate for any form of income not taxed at a differential rate. It varies income for single individuals across jurisdictions and assesses the relationship between wages, alternative minimum tax, and the...

A simple theory suggests that a common form of federal horizontal equalization grants should cause subnational governments to levy higher tax rates, distorting local tax bases and so increasing federal transfers. To test this, I examine Canadian provincial tax policies in the 1972-2002 period....

The appropriateness of a federal deduction for state and local taxes is a frequent point of contention among scholars and policymakers, and various proposals have been offered to limit or modify the deduction. All of the debates and proposals surrounding the deduction treat states and localities...

I examine whether federal intergovernmental grants have a persistent long-term effect on state fiscal policy. A simple theoretical framework is developed based on the median voter model and is structurally estimated based on a 30-year panel of U.S. federal grants and state tax revenues. In both...

The 2017 tax bill put a cap of $10,000 on the deduction for state and local taxes, while retaining existing rules for charitable donations. It has been suggested that states could enact 100% state tax credits for people who donate money to the state, so taxpayers could donate instead of pay...

While the U.S. tax system is progressive, the distribution of government spending makes the overall fiscal system more progressive than is apparent from tax distributions alone. Using a microdata model we estimate the distribution of federal, state and local taxes and spending between 1991 and...

This paper studies the interaction between the federal and state tax systems during the 1980s and in particular considers how the Tax Reform Act of 1986 affected state tax structure. Using a panel data set on state governments over a nine year period, I estimate tax share equations for six...