22 research outputs found
Determinants of Legislator Compensation in California and the Residual Impacts of Proposition 1A
No full textProperty Tax Exemptions for Nonprofit Hospitals: What Are They Worth? Do They Earn Them? Evidence From New York City
No full textEstimating the Effect of Sports Facilities on Local Area Commercial Rents: Evidence From Brooklyn’s Barclays Center
No full text The effect of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on commercial land rents is estimated on a pooled cross-section of parcels within 1 mile of the arena from 2006 through 2015. The effect of the arena is isolated using a triple difference-in-difference approach. From the preferred model, net operating income per square foot is estimated to fall by an average of 3.7% for each 1,000 feet away a commercial parcel is removed from the arena. The average rent effect within 1 mile of the arena is further estimated to be US$2.71 per square foot. The implications of the findings are discussed. </jats:p
Markets, Efficiency, and Governance
No full textThis chapter provides an overview of markets and the conditions under which they fail to allocate society's resources efficiently from the perspective of neo-classical economic theory. The sources of market failures discussed are public goods, externalities, poorly defined property rights, high transaction costs, and information asymmetries. In addition to offering standard positive explanations for government intervention in failed markets, the chapter also presents a normative argument for doing so. Market theory is then linked to contemporary public administration through a discussion of alternative strategies for deciding the mode and extent of intervention. Finally, economic efficiency is extended to public management by arguing that managerial decision making is appropriately measured by technical efficiency, or a manager's ability to maximize program outputs given her resources. </jats:p
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An Impact Analysis of California’s State-County Assessors’ Partnership Agreement Program
No full textCalifornia’s State-County Assessors’ Partnership Agreement Program (SCAPAP) provided select counties with a dollar-for-dollar matching grant from the state for assessment administration over a three-year period from fiscal year 2015 through 2017. One of the policy goals for the grant was to finance administrative activities that would lead to an increase in the property tax base, thereby increasing property tax revenue. This study evaluates how well the grant accomplished this goal. Using the synthetic control method on data from 2007 through 2018, I find little evidence SCAPAP funds increased participating counties’ property tax base. Since the purpose of the program is based on sound economic theory, I caution interpreting this conclusion as a reason to discontinue policy experimentation
The effect of a new sports facility on property development: Evidence from building permits and a localized synthetic control
No full textA leading edge of sports economics research over the last decade has been the impact of sports facilities on property prices. While there is near consensus of positive, distance-decaying price effects, the existing literature has yet to begin exploring the underlying causal mechanism of the price response. One possible mechanism is increases in building quality. This study tests for a sports-induced change in building quality as measured by building permits in census tracts in Sacramento, California, where a new arena for a professional basketball franchise opened in 2016. The identication strategy is a localized synthetic control where localization restricts the donor pool to census tracts in the city limits in order to hold building codes and permit administration constant over time. Baseline models and multiple robustness checks indicate the arena had no effect on permit activity
Excessive Revenue Underforecasting: Evidence and Implications from New York City’s Property Tax
No full textTowards enhancing tax abatement transparency: Reviewing the promises and limitations of GASB 77
No full textAbstractIn August 2015, the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) adopted Statement 77, requiring government disclosure in audited financial reports of a particular type of tax expenditure, tax abatements. GASB's reporting standards move tax abatements from a budgetary environment to an accounting environment. This paper evaluates GASB 77's provisions to encourage an early and on-going dialogue about the Statement's prospects for achieving greater transparency compared to existing tax expenditure reporting efforts. We conclude that GASB 77 will be most beneficial to consumers of financial information in medium and large jurisdictions where there is no alternative tax abatement disclosure platform, or where the alternative offers less transparency than what can be achieved through financial reporting.</jats:p
Do Open Records Facilitate Criminal Behavior? The Case of Property Tax Records
No full textProperty tax records are generally public records. In order to improve access to these records and enhance transparency, most local governments have adopted online-based property tax record searches. Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that online-access to private information allows criminals to more efficiently target their victims. Thus, government officials face the tradeoff of improving transparency at the expense of protecting privacy, and vice versa. It is unclear from existing research if greater transparency in fact facilitates criminal behavior. To test this possibility, property-related crime data were obtained from 150 Georgia counties in 2005 and 2007 and used in a difference-in-difference research design. The results indicate that no systematic relationship exists between online property tax records and property crime. The policy implications of the finding are discussed
