Estimates the marriage tax by income class (based on OBRA '93 changes in the rate schedule and EITC) using samples of actual tax returns. In 1994, 52 percent of married couples paid a marriage tax of $1,244, while 38 percent received a subsidy of $1,399.

Medicare currently transfers roughly $200 billion annually to the elderly. The difference between medicare expenditures flowing into the state and annual Medicare taxes leaving the state--both on an annual and a lifetime basis--varies widely across states. Lifetime Medicare transfers, defined as...

This paper examines how the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) affects the weighted average marginal tax rates that apply to various components of taxable income and the subsidy rates on various income tax deductions. It also considers how several AMT reform proposals would affect the number of AMT...

Examines the states' experience with income tax indexing and sees what lesson can be drawn from it. Describes the indexing statutes, and estimate simple econometric models of both the decisions to adopt indexing and to renege on promise to index.

The continued rise in the number of non-elderly Americans without health insurance has led to considerable interest in tax-based policies to raise the level of insurance coverage. This paper describes a detailed microsimulation model that has been developed to evaluate such tax-based policies,...

This paper reviews the issues raised by and the impacts of the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance. After reviewing the arguments for and against this policy, I present evidence from a micro-simulation model on the impacts on federal revenue, insurance coverage, and income...

The Social Security earnings test reduces payments to beneficiaries whose labor income exceeds a given threshold. We investigate the impact of this rule by studying the significant changes in its structure over the past 25 years. We find that the earnings test exerts no robust influence on the...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the most comprehensive reform of the U.S. medical system in at least 45 years. The ACA transforms the non-group insurance market in the United States, mandates that most residents have health insurance, significantly expands public...