Twenty US states currently allow both county and municipal governments to impose sales taxes on purchases within their jurisdictions. This study investigates the complex multi-jurisdiction and multi-tier dimensions of local option sales taxes (LOSTs) in this setting. We estimate own-rate and...

Development impact fees have sparked considerable controversy as they have spread rapidly in usage throughout the United States. One contentious issue is the effect that these fees have on local economic development. While some scholars have argued that impact fees attract jobs by reducing...

Development impact fees are a controversial and relatively novel method of financing local public infrastructure. While their effects on home values have been examined extensively, very few studies have considered an important potential relationship with the price of undeveloped land. This study...

Development impact fees may create more housing opportunities for lower-income households within suburban areas if there is a fiscal incentive behind the adoption of exclusionary land-use regulations. Using panel data estimation techniques that allow us to control for unobservable heterogeneity...

We formally demonstrate the prisoners' dilemma fueling the incentives "arms race." Our simple game (1) includes only localities that are equivalent with respect to basic location requirements; and (2) explicitly models business climate. Localities are compelled to offer incentives despite...

This is the Presidential Address at the 2006 Annual Meetings of the Southern Regional Science Association, March 30-April 1, St. Augustine, Florida. It discusses the status of fiscal decentralization in the academic literature and as a matter of policy focus. Although fiscal decentralization is...

Tax Burden, defined as the ratio of total tax revenues over personal income, is frequently used to measure state tax policy. The authors analyze the empirical relationship between changes in Tax Burden and changes in tax policies from 1987 to 2000 using states’ forecasts of revenue...