The authors demonstrate that the average state or local government worker earns higher wages than the average private-sector worker—but only because they are, on average, older and substantially better educated. More than half of state and local government employees in New England have a...

Current federal policies to ‘make work pay’ leave the vast majority―88%―of low-income working families in the U.S. without the guarantee of a decent living standard, even with full-time work. In their new study, Jeannette Wicks-Lim and Jeffrey Thompson advance proposals to substantially...

This paper uses US state panel data to explore the relationship between the share of income held by affluent households and the level of income received by low and middle-income households. A rising top share of income can potentially lead to increases in the incomes of low and middle-income...

In this chapter for an international study, "The Great Recession and the Distribution of Household Income," Jeffrey Thompson and Timothy Smeeding highlight the degree to which economic and social policies, such as the federal stimulus, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and Social Security...

In recent years, some states have responded to the collapse in tax revenue following the Great Recession by turning to tax increases targeted at high-income households. The revenue from such taxes can help sustain public spending on vital public services. Jeffrey Thompson looks at decades of...

The importance of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in combating poverty in our country by alleviating hunger was driven home anew during the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and the subsequent tepid economic recovery. The program is credited with preventing a dramatic increase in hunger...

Evidence from surveys of migrating households, the existing economic literature, and new analysis using data from the Internal Revenue Service all suggest that taxes do not play any notable role in causing people to leave a state. The most important factors in influencing household migration are...

This paper incorporates costly migration into the empirical literature on the incidence on wages of states and local taxes. The responsiveness of pre-tax wages to changes in state and local taxes (including income, sales and property taxes) is shown to vary by age and education. Using repeated...

The 2008-09 Great Recession has created an ongoing severe fiscal crisis for state and local governments throughout the United States. Republican leaders are now advancing an agenda to radically downsize state and local governments by cutting taxes, slashing wages and benefits for public workers,...

Revised April 13, 2010The Governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and several other states have recently proposed employer tax credits as measures to fight high unemployment in their states. Such policies are also being considered at the federal level. In the Working Paper, Jeff...