Policy makers are frequently interested in soliciting unbiased information regarding alternative policies, and expert surveys can be influential. Since ranking policies is an often subjective process, there is always the concern of bias, both intentional and not. Expert bias is difficult to...

The SIC sectors identified for direct, indirect, and in kind rent seeking activity have been identified and verified empirically in Sobel & Garrett (2002) by comparing capital counties to non-capital counties. We convert these industries from SIC to NAICS codes and provide measures of direct,...

This paper provides a tractable theoretical model designed to capture the targeting incentives created by benchmark testing. Under high-stakes benchmark testing, schools and teachers are judged on the fraction of students that meet some given level of educational attainment. The incentive for...

This paper employs Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports of the 35 largest population American cities from 2005 to 2011 to examine how these cities managed the Great Recession, which was a global macroeconomic shock particularly damaging to the housing sector. While broader surveys of local...

Property tax limits are a subject of continual interest among policy makers. Indiana recently implemented tax caps that limit individual property tax burdens to a fixed percentage of market value. The resulting system creates structural deficits that depend on the simultaneous spending choices...

Use taxes are utilized by states to discourage taxpayers from engaging in sales tax avoidance via shopping in lower tax states. Enforcement of this tax has long been difficult, as demonstrated in the case of South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (2018). States have instead relied on different...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. that states may require sellers without a physical presence to collect use taxes has generated much enthusiasm and dread among observers. We present new data on revenues from the state use tax between 2010 and 2017. We also present a...

One of the immediate political difficulties of federal legislation during the COVID-19 pandemic is in the delivery of aid made available to state and local governments. However, due to differences in administrative and budgeting processes, there is variation in the timing between damages to...

Local governments across the U.S. have had a prominent role in financing the pandemic response during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and economic recession. Yet, such governments are increasingly facing budgetary strain as sources of tax revenue evaporate. If the financial burden on such...

Governments are subjected to many sources of competition that can be productive or destructive to their ability to maintain citizen trust. This paper explores the role of competition in the local government marketplace as a determinant of trust in local government. Using individual respondent...