I survey the research on the last twenty-five years of subnational income tax policy and conclude that the defining feature of state and local income taxes is geography. Geographic boundaries limit the power of subnational governments to tax people and activities. The article discusses where...

The taxing authority of subnational governments is limited by the geographic location of individuals and economic activity. The rise of telework decouples a worker's residence from the employer's location, creating challenges for personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, and unemployment...

The taxing authority of subnational governments is limited by the geographic location of individuals and economic activity. The rise of telework decouples a worker's residence from the employer's location, creating challenges for personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, and unemployment...

Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis, this paper updates, for 123 countries, the estimates of tax capacity-defined as the maximum level of revenue a country can feasibly achieve - and tax effort - measured as the ratio of actual tax revenue to tax capacity. It also introduces two novel models that...

This paper estimates the tax capacity and tax effort of the nine provinces in South Africa, allowing for the assessment of the revenue-mobilizing ability of provinces and overall tax system efficiency. Provincial tax capacity and effort is estimated via a stochastic frontier approach using the...

We provide new evidence on countries' tax effort - the gap between collected and predicted tax revenue - based on a self-constructed panel of 114 countries, covering the period from 1995 to 2020. We apply the stochastic frontier model of Kumbhakar et al. (2014. Technical efficiency in competing...

Although reassignment of policy instruments among governments in many federations is a recurring event, there is no widely accepted, positive model of the phenomenon. This stands in contrast to the well established body of work on the normative theory of the efficient federal assignment. In this...

Conventional portrayals of armed group taxation emphasize ad hoc and unpredictable schemes, yet many insurgents construct surprisingly state-like fiscal systems. This paper explains when and why armed groups institutionalize taxation-developing hierarchies, codified rules, dedicated offices, and...

Citizens in Colombia's conflict-affected regions protest to demand public goods provision while simultaneously producing public goods independently. This is surprising, as both actions are carried out by poor populations and are frequently repressed by violence. What explains when citizens make...

Can simply exceeding a critical tax-to-GDP threshold bring about an accelerated trajectory of economic growth and development in a country? We conduct new event studies and exploit a richer dataset to revisit Gaspar, Jaramillo and Wingender’s 2016 “tax tipping point” result. Both with...

This paper discusses the application of the conceptual framework for potential revenue estimation using Indonesia's existing macroeconomic indicators. The authors find that Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), population, and urbanization rate are good predictors for most tax sources. These...

An international tax haven is usually a low-tax jurisdiction that seeks to attract investment by foreign investors. But, there are many state and local jurisdictions within federal systems that set zero tax rates on personal or corporate income, consumption, property, and wealth in an effort to...

If housing prices adjust across jurisdictions to equalize utility from housing services across locations, and if higher marginal tax rates constrain budgets, then housing prices will decrease in high tax jurisdictions relative to low tax jurisdictions. Similarly, housing prices will rise to...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, states grappled with the question of whether and to what extent to impose restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19. We investigate whether state reliance on sales tax revenue, relative to other tax revenue sources, is associated with shorter durations of COVID-19...

Nearly every state incorporates the federal tax code into its individual income tax system. This widespread incorporation has many supporters and has been justified on the basis that it is necessary in order for states to have a simple and efficient tax system. This article explores the...

This article argues that a business which embeds environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in its strategy should consider whether seeking or accepting targeted state and local economic development incentives (which we refer to as “state tax incentives”) is consistent with...

Suárez Serrato and Zidar (2016) identify state corporate tax incidence in a spatial equilibrium model with imperfectly mobile firms. Their identification argument rests on comparative-statics omitting a channel implied by their model: the link between common determinants of a location's...

An international tax haven is usually a low-tax jurisdiction that seeks to attract investment by foreign investors. But, there are many state and local jurisdictions within federal systems that set zero tax rates on personal or corporate income, consumption, property, and wealth in an effort to...

Prior studies show that taxes matter for the residential locations of high-income earners. But, states raise a significant share of revenue from nonresidents. Using variation in state tax rates, we provide causal evidence on the effect of the net-of-tax rate on the location of labor supply for...

We develop a comprehensive dataset of state and local taxes from 2000–2015 that includes personal income taxes, property taxes, corporate income taxes, sales taxes, estate taxes and excise taxes. We illustrate how state and local taxes have changed over time, over business cycles, and to what...

Prior studies show that taxes matter for the residential locations of high-income earners. But, states raise a significant share of revenue from nonresidents. Using variation in state tax rates, we provide causal evidence on the effect of the net-of-tax rate on the location of labor supply for...

Prior studies show that taxes matter for the residential locations of high-income earners. But, states raise a significant share of revenue from nonresidents. Using variation in state tax rates, we provide causal evidence on the effect of the net-of-tax rate on the location of labor supply for...

This Note considered whether a state can tax the worldwide combined income of a unitary business of a United States parent corporation and foreign subsidiaries. The primary alternative to worldwide combined reporting is the federal government's arm's length method of taxing foreign source...