We analyze voting on subsidies for professional sports facilities in Harris County (Houston), Texas and Brown County (Green Bay), Wisconsin to learn more about voter preferences for these subsidies. The results differ somewhat between the two jurisdictions, as do the nature of the supports being proposed and the communities. One consistent result is that voting precincts that have a relatively ...

This paper analyzes the role of yardstick competition for improving political decisions. We examine how performance comparisons across jurisdictions affect the agency problem resulting from uncertainty about politicians (adverse selection) and their policies (moral hazard). We study two forms of inefficiency: the provision of wasteful project and the failure to provide useful project .We find a...

Much attention has been paid to the influence of the institutional form of waste collection on costs. We extend this literature in three directions by including the unit-based pricing system. First, we show that unit-based pricing systems are more important from a cost-minimizing point of view than the institutional mode of waste collection. In particular, the bag-based and frequency-based pric...

A theoretical analysis considers the impact of a typical system of redistributive “fiscal equalization” transfers on the taxing effort of local jurisdictions. More specifically, it shows that the marginal contribution rate, i.e. the rate at which an increase in the tax base reduces those transfers, might be positively associated with the local tax rate while the volume of grants received is lik...

Using comprehensive high-frequency state and local sales tax data, we show that shopping behavior responds strongly to changes in rates. Even though taxes are not observed posted prices have a wide range of rates exemptions, consumers adjust many dimensions. They stock up on storable goods before rise increase online cross-border both the short long run. The difference between short- long-run s...

This paper critically surveys the growing literature on policy choices of local governments. First, we identify various reasons for government interactions, including fiscal competition, bidding firms, yardstick expenditure spillovers, and Tiebout sorting. We discuss theoretically what parameters should be estimated to determine reason competition among emphasize how outcomes emerging from this...

ABSTRACT The Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) limited interest deductibility. Using a difference-in-differences design, we show that following the enactment new limitations, affected firms significantly decrease their leverage. Specifically, find relative to unaffected U.S. firms, leverage by 7.6 percent assets, corresponding $330 million per firm and $84.8 billion for treatment sample. T...