Models of expressive voting postulate that voters will `consume' ideological stances on issues by voting for them, even when they are against the voter's own narrow self interest, if the probability of being a decisive voter is low. When a voter is unlikely to sway the outcome, the odds that a...

Municipalities have revenue motives for enforcing traffic laws in addition to public safety motives because many traffic offenses are punished via fines and the issuing municipality often retains the revenue. Anecdotal evidence supports this revenue motive. We empirically test this revenue...

Since budget stabilization funds have the potential to aid states in mitigating periods of fiscal stress, they may reduce the default risk associated with state-issued debt. This paper explores how budget stabilization funds affect state borrowing costs. While the empirical results reveal that...

One challenge states face in designing an income tax system is deciding how to treat non-resident earners. Numerous states have entered into reciprocity agreements with other states that exclude non-residents’ income from the tax base. These agreements provide a unique opportunity to explore...

Municipalities have revenue motives for enforcing traffic laws in addition to public-safety motives because many traffic offenses are punished via fines and the issuing municipality often retains the revenue. Anecdotal evidence supports this revenue motive. We empirically test the revenue motive...

This article examines the current state budget crises from a historical perspective. The role of major expenditures and revenue sources in the context of the current slowdown and how reliance on various revenue sources has changed since World War II are addressed. Tax revenue variability over...

Economic downturns often force state policymakers to enact sizable tax increases or spending cuts to close budget shortfalls. In this paper the authors make use of a Markov-switching regression model to empirically describe the expansions and contractions in the states of the Eighth Federal...

This paper presents new evidence of spatial correlation in U.S. state income growth. We extend the basic spatial econometric model used in the growth literature by allowing spatial correlation in state income growth to vary across geographic regions. We find positive spatial correlation in...

This article will explore the extent, causes, and proposed solutions of the current fiscal crisis from a historical perspective of state finance. Although the current fiscal crisis is severe, it becomes more difficult to assess unless one has a more complete understanding of the historical...

We use a spatial model to investigate a state’s choice of branch banking and interstate banking regimes as a function of the regime choices made by other states and other variables suggested in the literature. We extend the basic spatial econometric model by allowing spatial dependence to vary...