54 research outputs found
The Oberholzer-Gee/Strumpf File-Sharing Instrument Fails the Laugh Test
No full textI examine the key instrument (German kids on vacation) used by Professors Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf. Their measured relationship between the instrument and the variable that it is instrumenting for, American downloading, is seen to have outlandish implications, indicating an important error. The instrument is also shown to be related to American record sales, contrary to the requirements of their analysis. The data set used by O/S is biased, considerably overstating the share of German files. Finally, I demonstrate that the instrument must have a de minimus impact on American downloading (and thus American record sales) negating its potential usefulness and implying that their approach could never have worked.
Essays in political economy
No full textThesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1995.Includes bibliographical references.by Koleman S. Strumpf.Ph.D
Government credibility and policy choice: evidence from the Pennsylvania earned income tax
No full textGovernment credibility and policy choice: evidence from the Pennsylvania earned income tax
No full text
Infrequent Assessments Distort Property Taxes: Theory and Evidence
No full textEconomists have long recognized that lags in property reassessment benefit infrequent movers because it reduces their property taxes. But in addition reassessment lags can influence the level of property taxes selected under majority rule. I show that short delays in community-wide reassessment increase property tax collections because it reduces the tax price for a majority of voters. However, longer delays reduce property tax collections because the aggregate assessed base (and thus the tax yield) declines so much. I formally characterize the cutoff between these regimes and show tax collections are generally above their socially optimal level. This theory can help explain why many people believe property taxes are excessive, and it also suggests that the American system of taxing capital gains at realization, rather than on accrual, might result in excessive rates. I test this theory on a sample of Pennsylvania municipalities in the Philadelphia suburbs. This is a suitable crucible for such an evaluation because community-wide reassessments are infrequently performed in Pennsylvania. It is not possible to reject the theory’s basic predictions, and numerical estimates suggest that a five year delay in community-wide reassessment increases government revenues by six percent. However, reassessment delays do not impose statistically significant social losses because they benefit infrequent movers
Endogenous Policy Decentralization Testing the Central Tenet of Economic Federalism
No full textThis is the publisher's version, also found here: http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=00904d38-5ca6-40d9-a352-b9429ec2056d%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=5933965The economic theory of federalism is largely built around the premise that more heterogeneous preferences result in more decentralized policy making. Despite its prominence and importance, this central tenet of economic federalism has never been empirically evaluated. This paper presents the first formal test of the link between preference heterogeneity and endogenous policy decentralization using as a case study liquor control in the United States over the period 1934–70. The results are reassuring: States with more heterogeneous preferences are more likely to decentralize liquor control and allow for local government decision making
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