We use the US Survey of Consumer Finances to measure the change in federal tax liability that would result should mortgage interest no longer be deductible from taxable income. We argue that the elimination of this housing tax provision would lead households to reshuffle their balance sheet,...

We document that immigration to U.S. states has increased the mass of workers at the lower range of the skill distribution. We use this change in skill distribution of workers to analyze the effect of immigration on wages. Our model allows firms to endogenously respond to the immigration-induced...

We document that immigration to U.S. states has increased the mass of workers at the lower range of the skill distribution. We use this change in skill distribution of workers to analyze the effect of immigration on wages. Our model allows firms to endogenously respond to the immigration-induced...

Within the off-reserve Canadian Aboriginal population, high school graduation rates are about 45 percent lower in Northern communities (North) than the rest of Canada (South). Using data from the Aboriginal Peoples’ Surveys, we document that economic incentives do not appear to be important in...

This paper analyzes the effect of a fiscal equalization system on the composition of government expenditures of subnational governments. We incorporate vertical equalization transfers with optimal choice of the composition of government expenditures in an endogenous growth model and show that...

For fifteen European countries over the 1970-2004 period we establish that there is a large and persistent agricultural productivity gap, the ratio of labor productivity in non-agriculture to that in agriculture. Correcting for under-reporting of self-employment income in both agriculture and...

This paper is the first to examine the causal relationship between trade openness and government size using both aggregate and disaggregated government expenditure data, including data on social security. Our results indicate that examining the relationship separately for functional categories...

In the late 1990s, China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) underwent dramatic labor retrenchment, drawing considerable attention to how women fared relative to men during the retrenchment process. However, almost all the existing studies on the subject rely on individual-level data. In this...

Provincial Nominee programs have increased the role of the provinces in selecting immigrants to Canada. We use administrative data to compare the earnings and settlement rates of Provincial Nominees (PNs) and immigrants through comparable federal programs, such as economic class immigrants...

To encourage more even dispersion of economic immigrants throughout Canada, the federal and various provincial governments have developed the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs). In this paper, we provide an overview of these programs and assess their impact on the flow of immigrants to smaller...