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Journal Article
Taking charge: should New England increase its reliance on user charges?
New England relies less on user charges for its state and local revenues than any other region of the country. As a result, some policymakers maintain that increases in user charges would correct an "imbalance" in the regions revenue mix. However, the national mix of state and local revenues is not necessarily the best mix for the states of New England. The degree to which a state should rely on u. ser charges depends on the priorities of its policymakers among competing principles of taxation, the conditions under which each principle favors user charges over taxes, and the extent to which ...
Journal Article
Equity in the distribution of Massachusetts tax burdens
Journal Article
Differences across First District banks in operational efficiency
Economists devoted little attention to differences across banks in operational efficiency until about 15 years ago, when banks began to fail with increasing frequency. Some economists attributed the rising failure rate in part to intensified competitive pressures generated by deregulation and technological innovation. If this hypothesis is correct, and a significant number of banks are still inefficiently managed, then further deregulation and technological change could "shake up and shake out" the banking industry. Using data from 1985 through 1993, this study evaluates the extent to which ...
Journal Article
Interstate fiscal disparity in 1997
Readily available tax statistics tell state and local policymakers the amount and mix of revenues that their governments receive. However, these officials pose harder fiscal questions than simply how much money is flowing into their coffers and from what sources. They frequently ask, What is our state's capacity to raise revenues, regardless of how much we actually collect? To what extent do we utilize that capacity? Is our revenue capacity sufficient to finance our state's need for public services? These questions are especially salient today, given that during state fiscal year 2002 ...
Journal Article
State business tax climate: how should it be measured and how important is it?
States are more concerned than ever before about their business tax climate. Over the past two decades, profound technological and political changes have enhanced employers' geographic mobility and extended their geographic range, thereby intensifying economic competition both within the United States and throughout the world. This study ranks the business tax climate of 22 states, including the six within New England. It finds only modest differences in business tax climate among most states. Within the region, New Hampshire and Massachusetts have the most attractive business tax climates.> ...
Journal Article
The geographic boundaries of New England's middle-lending markets
Mid-sized companies--those with annual sales between $10 million and $250 million--produce a significant percentage of the nation's output; thus, any conditions impeding their performance should concern public policymakers. One such condition may be insufficient access to short-term credit at competitive prices. In order to evaluate the competitiveness of lending markets, analysts must be able to identify their geographic boundaries. ; This article, the second in a series on middle-market lending, investigates the boundaries and concentration levels of middle-lending markets in New England. ...
Journal Article
Are state government debt levels too high?
Journal Article
Fiscal condition of the New England states
Working Paper
Measuring the incentive effects of state tax policies toward capital investment
Empirical research on the effects of differential business taxation across jurisdictions relies on the appropriate measurement of the burden of tax in each location. While numerous summary measures have been proposed and used in various contexts to make such comparisons, most fail to account for the full effects of each state's tax system and the interactions of state tax systems with both local and federal taxes. This paper addresses these issues and employs an approach used in recent state tax reform studies to measure tax burdens. The advantages of this "representative firm" approach ...