SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
PAI 812
Ph.D Seminar: Public Finance
Spring 2019
Professor Yinger
451 Eggers Hall
Phone: 315-443-9062
Email: joyinger@syr.edu
https://joyinger.expressions.syr.edu/
Class Location: 012 Eggers Hall
Class Time: 3:45 – 5:05 MW
Office Hours: 11:00 – 12:00 MW or by appointment
Course Overview and Requirements
This course covers selected topics in state and local public finance at the Ph.D. level. It is specifically designed for Ph.D. students in the Public Administration Department. The topics covered are the supply of local public services (including production functions, cost functions, and efficiency), the demand for local public services (including local responses to state aid, household choice of a community, and the impact of local public services on house values), state and local revenues, state and local economic development, and state and local bonds. The principal objective of the course is to train scholars, so the assignments are designed to help students master existing research and to start conducting research on their own.
Time & Place
The class will meet in 012 Eggers Hall, from 3:45 to 5:05 on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Class Format
Until the end of the class, when there will be student presentations, the class will consist of lectures—with plenty of opportunity for student participation. Most of the lectures will start by providing background on the research and policy issues raised by a topic and then will present one or more articles on the topic in some detail. Students are encouraged to complete the assigned reading before class so that they can ask questions and participate in the discussion.
Prerequisite
This class is open to any Ph.D. students in the P.A. department. It is not open to undergraduates or MPA students. Any Ph.D. student from another department should contact the professor to see if he or she has the background for the class.
Assignments
The assignments for this class consist of (1) a draft research proposal, (2) a class presentation of a revised research proposal, (3) a final research proposal, and (4) a final exam.
The first three assignments must be completed in sequence. The draft research proposal is due by March 20. This timing makes it possible for each student to receive feedback from the professor to incorporate into the final proposal. The student presentations will be scheduled at the end of the class, roughly from April 22 to 29. The final proposals will be due on May 3.
The research proposal must contain the following elements: (a) a description of the behavior to be studied and a statement about why it is important, (b) a literature review, (c) a conceptual framework, (c) a description of the data required (preferably with reference to existing data sets), and (d) a discussion of the statistical methodology to be used. No data need be collected, although data collection and analysis is certainly not forbidden! The main point of this assignment is to master the literature on a topic in state and local public finance and then to develop a conceptually sensible, methodologically feasible way to extend this literature. This proposal may address any of the topics covered in the class or another topic in state and local public finance that has been approved by the professor.
The final exam is primarily designed to give students practice (and feedback) in preparation for the Public Administration’s comprehensive examination in public budgeting and finance. As a result, the exam will consist of a few in-depth questions (with choice). Students in the class who do not plan to take this comprehensive exam must still take the final exam!
Grades
The following weights will be used to determine each student’s final grade in the course:
Draft research proposal – 10%
Class Presentation – 20%
Final research proposal – 45%
Final Exam – 25%
Readings
The readings for the class are listed below. Most of the required readings are recent examples of high-quality empirical research in state and local public finance. A few of the required readings provide conceptual foundations for key topics. The optional readings provide additional examples of good recent empirical research, along with surveys or classic articles that will help students who want to study a particular topic in more depth. These readings include recent dissertations by students in the Public Administration Department, recent articles by Maxwell faculty, recent articles by well known scholars, and, in a few cases, exploratory work on topics that are difficult to study.
Instructions for finding each reading are provided. Many of the readings come from the National Tax Journal, which is available through the e-journals at the library. Most of the other journal articles are available through this source, as well. Several of the readings are also available through the Blackboard page for this class. Most of the optional readings are available through the internet, but interested students will have to track down some of these readings on their own. Students are encouraged to look at the National Tax Journal, the Journal of Public Economics, the Public Finance Review, and Public Budgeting and Finance to find other articles on topics they wish to pursue.
Topic 0: Advice for Beginning Scholars
Optional Reading:
M.A. Pirog, 2014. “The Art and Science of Scholarly Publishing,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(3)(Summer): 843–853.
Topic 1: Property Design and Tax Administration
Required Reading:
T.H. Eom, 2008. A Comprehensive Model of Determinants of Property Tax Assessment Quality: Evidence in New York State,” Public Budgeting and Finance, (Spring ) (28)1, pp. 58-81. Available on the class blackboard page.
J. Yinger. Forthcoming. “The Property Tax in the United States.” In J. Yinger, Editor, Poverty and Proficiency, the Cost of and Demand for Local Public Education, World Scientific Publishing. Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
J. Youngman. 2016. A Good Tax: Legal and Policy Issues for the Property Tax in the United States. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Available on the class blackboard page.
P. Zhang, 2016. “The Unintended Impact of Tax and Expenditure Limitations on the Use of Special Districts: The Politics of Circumvention.” Chapter 1 of his Ph.D. dissertation, PAIA Department, Syracuse University. Available on the class blackboard page.
M. Skidmore, C. L. Ballard, and T. R. Hodge, 2010. “Property Value Assessment Growth Limits and Redistribution of Property Tax Payments: Evidence from Michigan.” National Tax Journal, (September): 509-538.
R.P. Strauss and D. A. Strauss, 2004. “Residential Real Estate Assessment Fairness in Four Urban Areas,” Proceedings of the Ninety-Sixth Annual Conference (Washington, D.C.: National Tax Association), pp. 298-305.
D.L. Sjoquist and M. B. Walker, 1999. “Economies of Scale in Property Tax Assessment.” National Tax Journal, (June): 207-220.
T.A. Sexon, S. M. Sheffrin, and A. O’Sullivan, 1999. “Proposition 13: Unintended Effects and Feasible Reforms.” National Tax Journal, (March): 99-111.
W. Duncombe and J. Yinger, 2001. “Alternative Paths to Property Tax Relief.” In Property Taxation and Local Government Finance, edited by W.E. Oates (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy) [Pages 243-257] Available on the class blackboard page.
T.A. Downes and D.N. Figlio, 1999. “Do Tax and Expenditure Limits Provide a Free Lunch? Evidence on the Link Between Limits and Public Sector Service Quality.” National Tax Journal, (March): 113-128.
Topic 2: The Supply of Local Public Services I: Public Production Functions
Required Readings:
L. Stiefel, A.E. Schwartz, and I.G. Ellen, 2006. “Disentangling the Racial Test Score Gap: Probing the Evidence in a Large Urban School District,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, (Winter): 7-30. Available on the class blackboard page.
A.E. Schwartz, L. Stiefel, R. Rubenstein, and J. Zabel, 2011. “The Path Not Taken: How Does School Organization Affect Eighth-Grade Achievement?” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 33 (3) (September): 293–317.
D. Boyd, H. Lankford, S. Loeb, J. Rockoff, and J. Wyckoff, 2008. “The Narrowing Gap in New York City Teacher Qualifications and Its Implications for Student Achievement in High-Poverty Schools.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, (Autumn): 793-818.
T. Dee, 2004. “Teachers, Race, and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment.” The Review of Economics and Statistics, 86 (1) (February): 195-210.
W.D. Duncombe and J. Yinger, 1993. “An Analysis of Returns to Scale in Public Production, With an Application to Fire Protection.” Journal of Public Economics, (August): 49-72.
Topic 3: The Supply of Local Public Services II: Program Evaluation
Required Reading:
J.A. Angrist, et al. 2012. “Who Benefits from Kipp?” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 31 (4) (Fall): 837-860.
Optional Readings:
A.B. Krueger, 1999. “Experimental Estimates of Education Production Functions.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, (May): 497-532. Available through www.jstor.org.
D. Sims, 2008. “A Strategic Response to Class Size Reduction: Combination Classes and Student Achievement in California.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, (Summer): 457-478.
A.B. Krueger and D.M. Whitmore, 2001. “The Effect of Attending a Small Class in the Early Grades on College-Test Taking and Middle School Test Results: Evidence from Project STAR.” Economic Journal, (January): 1-28.
M. Boozer and C. Rouse, 2001. “Intraschool Variation in Class Size: Patterns and Implications.” Journal of Urban Economics, (July): 163-189.
M.J. Weiss, H.S. Bloom, and T. Brock, 2014. “A Conceptual Framework for Studying the Sources of Variation in Program Effects,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(3)(Summer): 778–808.
Topic 4: The Supply of Local Public Services IV: Public Cost Functions
Required Readings:
W.D. Duncombe, P. Nguyen-Hoang, and J. Yinger, 2015. “Measurement of Cost Differentials.” In Handbook of Research in Education Finance and Policy, 2nd Edition, M.E. Goertz and H.F. Ladd (eds.), New York: Routledge, pp. 260-278. Available on the class blackboard page.
D. Bradford, R.A. Malt, W.E. Oates, 1969. “The Rising Cost of Local Public Services: Some Evidence and Reflections.” National Tax Journal 22(2): 185-202. Available on the class blackboard page.
W. Duncombe and J. Yinger., 2011. “Are Education Cost Functions Ready for Prime Time? An Examination of their Validity and Reliability,” Peabody Journal of Education, 86(1): 28-57.Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
T.S. Dee, 2003. “The ‘First Wave’ of Accountability,” in No Child Left Behind? The Politics and Practice of Accountability, edited by P. Peterson and M. West (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 215-241. Available on the class blackboard page.
A.K. Donahue, 2004. “The Influence of Management on the Cost of Fire Protection.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, (Winter): 71-92. Available through e-journals at the SU library.
R. Rubenstein, L. Stiefel, A.E. Schwartz, and H.B.H. Amor, 2003. “Distinguishing Good Schools from Bad in Principle and Practice: A Comparison of Four Methods.” In Developments in School Finance: edited by W. J. Fowler, Jr. (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics) 53-70. Available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004325.pdf
W.J. Baumol and others, 2012. The Cost Disease: Why Computers Get Cheaper and Health Care Doesn’t. New Haven: Yale University Press.
W.D. Duncombe and J. Yinger, 1999. “Performance Standards and Educational Cost Indexes: You Can’t Have One Without the Other,” in Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance, edited by H. F. Ladd, R. Chalk, and J. S. Hansen (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press). Available to read/print this chapter online at: http://books.nap.edu/books/0309065631/html/index.html.
Topic 5: The Supply of Local Public Services V: Student Weights
Required Reading:
W.D. Duncombe and J. Yinger, 2005. “How Much More Does a Disadvantaged Student Cost?” Economics of Education Review, (October): 513–532. Available through e-journals at the SU library.
E. Gutierrez and J. Yinger. 2018. “How Fair Is New York State’s Foundation Aid Formula?” It’s Elementary column, February.
Optional Readings:
T. Downes and T. Pogue, 1994. “Adjusting School Aid Formulas for the Higher Cost of Educating Disadvantaged Students,” National Tax Journal, (March): 89-110.
A. Reschovsky and J. Imazeki, 2003. “Let No Child Be Left Behind: Determining the Cost of Improving Student Performance,” Public Finance Review, (May): 263-290.
Topic 6: The Supply of Local Public Services VI: Consolidation
Required Reading:
W.D. Duncombe and J. Yinger, 2007. “Does School District Consolidation Cut Costs?” Education Finance and Policy, 2(4) (Fall): 341-375. Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
W.D. Duncombe, J. Yinger, and P. Zhang, 2016. “How Does School District Consolidation Affect Property Values: A Case Study of New York.” Public Finance Review 44 (1): 52-79.
Y. Hu and J. Yinger, 2008. “The Impact of School District Consolidation on Housing Prices.” National Tax Journal 61(4) (December): 609-634. Available on the class blackboard page.
M. Andrews, W.D. Duncombe, and J. Yinger, “Revisiting Economies of Size in American Education: Are We Any Closer to a Consensus?” Economics of Education Review, (June): 245-262.
D.M. Brasington, 1999. “Joint Provision of Public Goods: The Consolidation of School Districts.” Journal of Public Economics, (September): 373-393.
Topic 7: The Demand for Local Public Services I: Median Voter and Other Approaches
Required Reading:
W. Duncombe and J. Yinger, 1998. “School Finance Reform: Aid Formulas and Equity Objectives.” National Tax Journal, (June): 239-262. Section on “Demand Model.” Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
G.K. Turnbull and C. Chinkun. 1998. “The Median Voter According to GARP.” Southern Economic Journal, (April): 1001-1011.
T. Bergstrom and R. Goodman. 1973. “Private Demands for Public Goods.” American Economic Review, (June): 280-296.
D.L. Rubinfeld, 1987. “The Economics of the Local Public Sector,” in Handbook of Public Economics, Vol. 2, edited by A.J. Auerbach and M. Feldstein (Amsterdam: North-Holland).
Topic 8: The Demand for Local Public Services II: State Aid
Required Readings:
J. Yinger, 2004. “State Aid and the Pursuit of Educational Equity: An Overview.” In Helping Children Left Behind: State Aid and the Pursuit of Educational Equity, edited by J. Yinger (MIT Press), 3-57.
P. Nguyen-Hoang, and John Yinger. 2019. “The Flypaper Effect: Methods, Magnitudes, and Mechanisms.” Working Paper, Syracuse University, January. Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
P. Nguyen-Hoang, and J. Yinger, 2014 “Education Finance Reform, Local Behavior, and Student Performance in Massachusetts,” Journal of Education Finance 39(4): 297-322. Available on the class blackboard page.
W.D. Duncombe and J. Yinger, 2011. “Making Do: State Constraints and Local Responses in California’s Education Finance System,” International Tax and Public Finance, (June): 337-368.
W.D. Duncombe and J. Yinger, 1998. “School Finance Reform: Aid Formulas and Equity Objectives.” National Tax Journal, (June): 239-262. Read the sections on “Aid Formulas and Equity Objectives” and “School Aid Simulations for New York.” Available on the class blackboard page.
W.D. Duncombe and J. Yinger, 2000. “Financing Higher Student Performance Standards: The Case of New York.” Economics of Education Review, (October): 363-386. Available on the class blackboard page.
S. Gamkhar and W. Oates, 1996. “Asymmetries in the Response to Increases and Decreases in Intergovernmental Grants: Some Empirical Findings,” National Tax Journal, (December): 501-512.
W.D. Duncombe, W. Wang, and J. Yinger, 2011. “School District Responses to Matching Aid Programs for Capital Facilities: A Case Study of New York’s Building Aid Program.,” National Tax Journal. (September): 759-794.
R.C. Fisher and L.E. Papke, 2000. “Local Government Responses to Education Grants,” National Tax Journal, (March): 153-168. Available on the class blackboard page.
Topic 9: The Demand for Local Public Services III: Property Tax Exemptions
Required Reading:
T.H. Eom, W. Duncombe, P. Nguyen-Hoang, and J. Yinger, 2014. “The Unintended Consequences of Property Tax Relief: New York State’s STAR Program.” Education Finance and Policy, 9(4)(Fall): 446-480. Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
J.E. Rockoff, 2010. “Local Response to Fiscal Incentives in Heterogeneous Communities.” Journal of Urban Economics (September): 138-147
P. Nguyen-Hoang, and John Yinger. 2018. “How Salience and Framing Alter the Behavioral Impacts of Property Tax Relief.” Working Paper, Syracuse University, May. Available on the class blackboard page.
W.D Duncombe and J. Yinger, 2001. “Alternative Paths to Property Tax Relief,” In Property Taxation and Local Government Finance, edited by W. E. Oates (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy) [Page 258 to the end.] Available on the class blackboard page.
Topic 10: The Demand for Local Public Services IV: Bidding and Sorting
Required Reading
J. Yinger, “Bidding and Sorting,” (Notes for a Class in State and Local Public Finance), and “Bidding and Sorting Graphs”
Optional Readings:
J. Yinger, 2015. “Hedonic Markets and Sorting Equilibria: Bid-Function Envelopes for Public Services and Neighborhood Amenities.” Journal of Urban Economics 86 (March): 9-25.
S. Ross and J. Yinger, 1999. “Sorting and Voting: A Review of the Literature on Urban Public Finance,” In Handbook of Urban and Regional Economics, Volume 3, Applied Urban Economics, edited by P. Cheshire and E. S. Mills (North-Holland): 2001-2060.
C. Tiebout, 1956. “A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures,” Journal of Political Economy, (October): 416-424.
Topic 11: The Demand for Local Public Services V: Tax Capitalization
Required Readings:
J. Yinger, H. Bloom, A. Börsch‑Supan, and H.F. Ladd, 1988. Property Taxes and House Values (Academic Press), Chapter 1 , Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Available on the class blackboard page.
J. Yinger. 2018. “Property Tax Capitalization,” In J. Yinger, Editor, Housing and Commuting: The Theory of Urban Residential Structure, World Scientific Publishing, pp. 385-397. Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
E. Eisenberg, 1996. “Intrajurisdictional Property Tax Capitalization Rates,” Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Syracuse University, Chapters 4-6. Available through Databases at the SU library. Type in “Dissertations & Theses @ Syracuse University”.
W.E. Oates, 1969. “The Effects of Property Taxes and Local Public Spending on Property Values: An Empirical Study of Tax Capitalization and the Tiebout Hypothesis,” Journal of Political Economy, (November/December): 957-971. (See also the exchange between Pollakowski and Oates, JPE, July/August 1973.) Available through http://www.jstor.org/.
S.S. Rosenthal and C. deBartolomé, 1999. “Property Tax Capitalization in a Model with Tax Deferred Assets and Standard Deductions,” Review of Economics and Statistics, (February): 85-95. Available through http://www.jstor.org/.
Topic 12: The Demand for Local Public Services: Hedonics
Required Reading:
J. Yinger and P. Nguyen-Hoang. 2016. “Hedonic Vices: Fixing Inferences about Willingness to Pay in Recent House-Value Studies.” Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis 7 (2) (Summer): 248-291. Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Reading
S. Rosen, 1974. “Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition.” Journal of Political Economy 82(1): 34-55.
Topic 13: The Demand for Local Public Services VI: School Quality Capitalization
Required Reading
P. Nguyen-Hoang and J. Yinger, 2011. “The Capitalization of School Quality into House Values: A Review,” Journal of Housing Economics 20(1) (March): 30-48.
Optional Readings:
J.M. Clapp, A. Nanda, and S. L. Ross, 2008. “Which School Attributes Matter? The Influence of School District Performance and Demographic Composition on Property Values,” Journal of Urban Economics 63:2 (March): 451-456.
P. Bayer, F. Ferreira, R. McMillan, 2007. “A Unified Framework for Measuring Preferences for Schools and Neighborhoods,” Journal of Political Economy 115(4) (August): 558-638.
S.E. Black, 1999. “Do Better Schools Matter?: Parental Valuation of Elementary Education,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, (May): 577-599. Available through e-journals at the SU library.
Topic 14: State and Local Revenue I: Property Tax Incidence
Required Readings:
J. Yinger. Forthcoming. “The Property Tax in the United States.” In J. Yinger, Editor, Poverty and Proficiency, the Cost of and Demand for Local Public Education, World Scientific Publishing. Read the section on Incidence. Available on the class blackboard page.
J. Yinger, “Notes on the Incidence of the Property Tax”
G. Zodrow, 2001. “The Property Tax as a Capital Tax: A Room with Three Views,” National Tax Journal, (March): 139-156. Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
H.F. Ladd, 1998. “Theoretical Controversies: Land and Property Taxation.” In Local Government Tax and Land Use Policies in the United States, edited by H. F. Ladd (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar) 25-54.
R.J. Carroll and J. Yinger, 1994. “Is the Property Tax a Benefit Tax? The Case of Rental Housing,” National Tax Journal, (June): 295-316.
H. Chernick, 2005. “On the Determinants of Subnational Tax Progressivity in the U.S,” National Tax Journal, (March): 93-112.
Topic 15: State and Local Revenue Il: Sales Taxes
Required Readings:
T.J. Besely and H. S. Rosen, 1999. “Sales Taxes and Prices: An Empirical Analysis,” National Tax Journal, (June): 157-178. Available through e-journals at the SU library.
C.L. Ballard and J. Lee, 2007. “Internet Purchases, Cross-Border Shopping, and Sales Taxes,” National Tax Journal, (December): 711-726. Available through e-journals at the SU library.
Optional Readings:
J. Alm and M. I. Melnik, 2010. “Do eBay Sellers Comply with State Sales Taxes?” National Tax Journal, (June): 215-236.
D.J. Young and A. Bielinshk-Kwapisz, 2002. “Alcohol Taxes and Beverage Prices,” National Tax Journal, (March): 57-74.
J. Alm and Mikhail I. Melnik, 2012. “Cross-Border Shopping and State Use Tax Liabilities: Evidence from eBay Transactions,” Public Budgeting & Finance, (Spring): 5-35.
J.M. Poterba, 1996. “Retail Price Reactions to Changes in State and Local Sales Taxes,” National Tax Journal, (June): 165-176.
R.R. Hawkins, 2000. “Popular substitution effects: Excess burden estimates for general sales taxes,” National Tax Journal, (December): 755-71.
D. Bruce and W.F. Fox, 2000. “E-Commerce in the Context of Declining State Sales Tax Bases,” National Tax Journal, (December): 1373-1388.
L. Chiou, and E. Muehlegger, 2014. “Consumer Response to Cigarette Excise Tax Changes,” National Tax Journal, 67(3)(September): 621-650. Available through e-journals at the SU library.
Topic 16: State and Local Revenue III: Income Taxes
Required Reading:
J. M. Ross and P. Nguyen-Hoang. 2013. “School District Income Taxes: New Revenue or a Property Tax Substitute?” Public Budgeting and Finance 33 (2) (Summer): 19-40.
D. Brunori. 2011. “State Income Taxes.” Chapter 6 in D. Brunori, State Tax Policy: A Political Perspective, The Urban Institute Press.
F. Sammartino, P. Stallworth, and D. Weiner. 2018. “The Effect of the TCJA Individual Income Tax Provisions Across Income Groups And Across The States.” Tax Policy Center, March 28.
Optional Reading:
W. Gale, H. Gelfond, A. Krupkin, M. J. Mazur, and E. Toder. 2018. “A Preliminary Assessment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.” National Tax Journal 71 (4): 589-612.
Topic 17: State and Local Revenue lV: Tax Competition
Required Readings:
J.C. Rork, 2003. “Coveting Thy Neighbors’ Taxation.” National Tax Journal, (December): 775-787. Available on the class blackboard page.
M.S. Tosun and M. Skidmore, 2004. “Interstate Competition and State Lottery Revenues,” National Tax Journal, (June): 163-178. Available through e-journals at the SU library.
Optional Readings:
G.S. Burge, and B. Piper, 2012. “Strategic Fiscal Interdependence: County and Municipal Adoptions of Local Option Sales Taxes,” National Tax Journal, (June): 387-415.
D. Bruce, W.F. Fox, and Z. Yang, 2010. “Base Mobility and State Personal Income Tax Rates,” National Tax Journal, (December): 945-966.
J.K. Brueckner and L.A. Saavedra, 2001. “Do Governments Engage in Strategic Property-Tax Competition?” National Tax Journal, (June): 203-230.
Topic 18: State and Local Economic Development Policy I: Impact of Tax Rates
Required Readings:
N. Bania and J.A. Stone, 2008. “Ranking State Fiscal Structure Using Theory and Evidence,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, (Autumn): 751-770. Available on the class blackboard page.
W.G. Gale, A. Krupkin, and K. Rueben, 2015. “The Relationship Between Taxes and Growth at the State Level: New Evidence.” Brookings Institution Working Paper, April. Available at: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Gale-Taxes-and-Growth-42915.pdf
S.H. Kang, L. Reese, and M. Skidmore, 2016. “Do Industrial Tax Abatements Spur Property Value Growth?” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 35, No. 2, 388–414. Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
W. Wong, “Taxes and State and Local Economic Development: The Homestead Tax Option in New York.” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 1998. Chapters 4 and 5. Available through Databases at the SU library. Type in “Dissertations & Theses @ Syracuse University”
A. Srithongrung, and K.A. Kriz, 2014. “The Impact of Subnational Fiscal Policies on Economic Growth: A Dynamic Analysis Approach,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(4)(Fall): 912–928.
D.J. Bruce, J. Deskins, and M. Mohsin, 2004. “State Tax Policies and Entrepreneurial Activity: A Panel Data Analysis,” Proceedings of the Ninety-Sixth Annual Conference (Washington, D.C.: National Tax Association): 325-335.
D.J. Bruce, 2002. “Taxes and Entrepreneurial Endurance: Evidence from the Self-Employed,” National Tax Journal, (March): 5-24.
S.T. Mark, T.J. McGuire, and L.E. Papke, 2000. “The Influence of Taxes on Employment and Population Growth: Evidence from the Washington, D.C. Area,” National Tax Journal, (March): pp. 105-124.
Topic 19: State and Local Economic Development Policy II: Impact of Tax Breaks
Required Readings:
R.W. Wassmer and J.E. Anderson, 2001. “Bidding for Business: New Evidence on the Effect of Locally Offered Economic Development Incentives in a Metropolitan Area,” Economic Development Quarterly, (May): 132-148.
D.A. Kenyon, A.H. Langley, and B.P. Paquin, 2012. “Property Tax Incentive Pitfalls,” National Tax Journal, (December): 1011-1022.
R. Moriarty, 2013. “Three Central New York Development Agencies Among Biggest Givers of Tax Exemptions in State,” Syracuse.com, March 12. Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
T.J. Bartik. 2017. “A New Panel Database on Business Incentives for Economic Development Offered by State and Local Governments in the United States.” W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Report 225.
J. Kolko and D. Newmark, 2010. “Do Some Enterprise Zones Create Jobs?” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, (Winter): 5-38.
J.Y. Man, 2003. “The Effect of State and Local Tax Incentive Programs on Job Growth,” Proceedings of Ninety-Fifth Annual Conference on Taxation (Washington, D.C.: National Tax Association): 316-322.
Y. Wu, 2003. “Three Essays on R&D Investment and Economic development,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, Available through Databases at the SU library. Type in “Dissertations & Theses @ Syracuse University”.
H.F. Ladd, 1994. “Spatially Targeted Economic Development Strategies: Do They Work?” Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, 1(1): 193-218.
R. Meltzer, 2011. “Clean and Safe’ for All? The Interaction between Business Improvement Districts and Local Government in the Provision of Public Goods,” National Tax Journal, (September) 64(3): 863-890.
Topic 20: State and Local Bonds I: Infrastructure
Required Reading
W. Wang, W.D. Duncombe, and J. Yinger. 2011. “School District Responses to Matching Aid Programs for Capital Facilities: A Case Study of New York’s Building Aid Program” National Tax Journal 64 (3) (September): 759-794.
San José State university Department of Economics, “An Introduction to Benefit-Cost Analysis,” Available at: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/cba.htm
Optional Reading:
J. Yinger. Forthcoming. “Still Unknown: The Impact of School Capital on Student Performance.” In J. Yinger, Editor, Poverty and Proficiency, the Cost of and Demand for Local Public Education, World Scientific Publishing.
Topic 21: State and Local Bonds
Required Readings:
M.D. Robbins, 2002. “Testing the Effect of Sale Method Restrictions in Municipal Bond Insurance: The Case of New Jersey,” Public Budgeting and Finance, (Summer): 40-56. [This article is based on M. D. Robbins dissertation at Syracuse University.] Available on the class blackboard page.
J. Yinger, 2010. “Municipal Bond Ratings and Citizens’ Rights,” American Law and Economics Review 12(1) (Spring): 1-38. Available on the class blackboard page.
J. Yinger. Forthcoming. “Present Value and Discounting, with Applications to Local Public Finance.” Appendix A in J. Yinger, Editor, Poverty and Proficiency, the Cost of and Demand for Local Public Education, World Scientific Publishing. Available on the class blackboard page.
Optional Readings:
The Bond Market Association, “An Investor’s Guide to Bond Basics” and “Municipal Bonds.” Available at http://www.investinginbonds.com/.
S. Gankhar, 2002. “Factors Affecting School Choice of Bonds,” Proceedings of the National Tax Association, Vol. 95: 396-408.
D. Zimmerman, and E. Pinkston, 2004. “Tax-Credit Bonds: Are There Advantages to this New Financial Instrument that Compensate for Introducing Additional Complexity?”Proceedings of the Ninety-Sixth Annual Conference (Washington, D.C.: National Tax Association), 426-431
H. Galper, K. Rueben, R. Auxier, and A. Eng, 2014. “Municipal Debt: What Does It Buy And Who Benefits?” National Tax Journal, 67(4)(December): 901-924.