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Working Paper
The role of small business in economic development
This paper sets out to evaluate the role that entrepreneurs and small businesses play in economic development. How important are entrepreneurs and small businesses in creating jobs, and are these the types of jobs that should be encouraged? How important are entrepreneurs and small businesses in the development of new products and new markets? Does promoting entrepreneurship and small businesses make sense as an economic development strategy? The answer is yes, but with some qualifications. Small businesses are potent job creators, but so are large businesses. The attribution of the bulk of ...
Working Paper
Financial education at the workplace: evidence from a survey of Federal Reserve Bank employees
There are a number of possible explanations for the seemingly irresponsible financial behavior of many Americans. In this paper we argue that an important explanation is simply ignorance: consumers often make poor financial decisions because they do not know how to make good ones. In particular, we stress that consumers may not realize the importance of saving for the future, and that they may not perceive the trouble they can bring upon themselves by incurring large amounts of unsecured debt. Using survey data from employees of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, we demonstrate that, at ...
Working Paper
Nexus, throwbacks, and the weighting game
This paper modifies a model proposed by Anand and Sansing (2000) to explain why states have chosen different formulas for corporate income apportionment. I demonstrate that nexus assumptions and allocation rules can have significant effects on the outcomes of the model, and are important considerations in analyzing the impetus for and effects of apportionment competition.
Working Paper
New insights in the determinants of regional variation in personal bankruptcy filing rates
Nonbusiness bankruptcy filing rates have increased very rapidly over the last couple of decades. In 1980, roughly 15 of every 10,000 Americans filed for bankruptcy protection. By 2004, that number had reached 54 of every 10,000 Americans. These alarming increases in bankruptcy filing rates over the last decade were largely the impetus for the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which went into effect in October, 2005. A substantial literature already exists that seeks to determine the causes of personal bankruptcy, but critical holes in the literature remain. In ...
Working Paper
Economic effects of apportionment formula changes : results from a panel of corporate income tax returns
To date empirical studies of the economic effects of changes in state corporate income tax apportionment policies have used only highly aggregated, state-level data. This study uses data at the individual firm level, which is provided by a population of corporate income tax returns from the State of Georgia over the period 1992 2002, to evaluate the economic development and revenue aspects of increasing the sales factor weight (and uniformly lowering the weights on payroll and property) in state corporate income tax apportionment formulas. Looking at the firm level, we find elasticities ...
Working Paper
Taxing consumption in Jamaica
In Jamaica, as in most countries, consumption taxes in the form of a value-added tax called the General Consumption Tax (GCT) and several excise taxes collectively known as the Special Consumption Tax (SCT) are critically important revenue sources, accounting for 37.4 percent of total revenues in fiscal year 2003/04 (27.7 percent for GCT alone) and an estimated 11.2 percent of GDP (8.3 percent for GCT alone). This paper first describes in some detail the present structure and administration of the GCT and SCT and then evaluates the performance of these taxes from several angles -- as revenue ...
Working Paper
Worker's compensation and state employment growth
Workers Compensation reforms have been on the table in virtually every state over the last several years, and many states have launched comprehensive reforms. At least nine states undertook major reforms of their workers compensation systems in 2004 alone, and the reforms were driven largely by claims that higher workers compensation costs are driving away businesses and the employment that comes with them. Given the nearly universal assertion by promoters of workers compensation reforms that high cost states lose jobs to relatively low cost states, one would expect that substantial research ...