Professor Yinger
451 Eggers Hall
Phone: 315-443-9062
Email: joyinger@syr.edu
https://joyinger.expressions.syr.edu/
Staff Support: Emily Minnoe
Email: erminnoe@syr.edu

Class Location: Online through class Blackboard page
Class Time: 12:45-2:05 MW
Office Hours: 2:30-3:30 M (on Blackboard) or by appointment

Class Lecture Slides

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.

All students are expected to meet the highest standards for academic integrity. The university standards on this topic are described at http://academicintegrity.syr.edu.

Any student who believes that he or she may need accommodation because of a disability should contact the Syracuse University Center for Disability Services (https://disabilityresources.syr.edu/).

All students are expected to treat other students with respect. Disagreements about ideas are fine; personal attacks are not.

Time & “Place”

The class will meet online through Blackboard from 12:45 to 2:05 on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Class Format

The class sessions will consist of lectures (with formal questions for students), student discussion of selected research papers, and presentations of students’ research proposals. 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 and answer questions.

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 short (2-3 pages) memo on the governmental structure in a selected state (other than New York), (2) a draft research proposal, (3) a class presentation of a revised research proposal, (4) a final research proposal, and (5) a final exam.

The first assignment must summarize a selected state’s governmental structure and identify the set of observations that could be used to study governmental costs or demand for public services by one level of local government in the state. This memo, which is due February 24, should draw on: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2019/econ/from_municipalities_to_special_districts.html

Assignments (2) through (4) must be completed in sequence.  The exact timing will be determined once the university’s schedule is finalized—and adjusted thereafter if necessary. The draft research proposal will probably be due near the middle of April. 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 in May. The final proposals will be due at the end of exam week.

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 are 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 PAIA 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:

Memo on Governmental Structure:        5%

Draft research proposal:                       10%

Class Presentation:                               20%

Final research proposal:                       40%

Final Exam:                                         25%

Readings

The readings for the class are listed below.  Most of the highly recommended readings are recent examples of high-quality empirical research in state and local public finance.  A few of these 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, Public Finance and Management, 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: The Structure of American Federalism

Highly Recommended Reading:

*U.S. Bureau of the Census. 2019. “From Municipalities to Special Districts, Official Count of Every Type of Local Government,” 2017 Census of Governments, October 29. (Skim)

Optional Reading:

C. Hogue. 2013. “Government Organization Summary Report: 2012.” Government Division Brief G12-CG-ORG, September 26.

Topic 2: Property Design and Tax Administration

Highly Recommended 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. 2020. “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 Reading:

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. 2018. “The Unintended Impact of Tax and Expenditure Limitations on the Use of Special Districts: Politics of Circumvention.” Economics of Governance 19 (1): 21-50  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.

Topic 3:  The Supply of Local Public Services I: Public Production Functions

Highly Recommended Reading:

J. Penney. 2017. “Racial Interaction Effects and Student Achievement.” Education Finance and Policy 12 (4)(Fall): 447-467.

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.

Optional 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.

T. Dee, 2004. “Teachers, Race, and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment.” The Review of Economics and Statistics, 86 (1) (February): 195-210.

C.K. Jackson, J.E. Rockoff, and D.O. Staiger. 2014. “Teacher Effects and Teacher-Related Policies.” Annual Review of Economics 6: 801-825.

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 4:  The Supply of Local Public Services II:  Program Evaluation

Highly Recommended Reading:

J.A. Angrist, et al. 2012. “Who Benefits from Kipp?” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 31 (4) (Fall): 837-860.

Optional Reading:

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 5:  The Supply of Local Public Services III:  Public Cost Functions 

Highly Recommended Reading:

W.D. Duncombe, P. Nguyen-Hoang, and J. Yinger, 2015. “Measurement of Cost Differentials.” In Handbook of Research in Education Finance and Policy, 2^nd 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 Reading:

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.

W.J. Baumol et al.  2012. The Cost Disease: Why Computers Get Cheaper and Health Care Doesn’t.  New Haven: Yale University Press.

Topic 6:  The Supply of Local Public Services IV:  Student Weights (NOT COVERED IN CLASS)

Highly Recommended 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 Reading:

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.

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 7:  The Supply of Local Public Services V:  Consolidation 

Highly Recommended 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 Reading:

N. Gordon and B. Knight. 2008. “The Effects of School District Consolidation on Educational Cost and Quality.” Public Finance Review 36 (4)(July): 408-430.

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.

Topic 8:  The Demand for Local Public Services I:  Median Voter and Other Approaches 

Highly Recommended 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 Reading:

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 9:  The Demand for Local Public Services II:  State Aid 

Highly Recommended Reading:

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.

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 Reading:

Duncombe, W.D., and J. Yinger. 1998. “School Finance Reform: Aid Formulas and Equity Objectives.” National Tax Journal 51 (2) (June): 239-262.

J.E. Rockoff, 2010. “Local Response to Fiscal Incentives in Heterogeneous Communities.” Journal of Urban Economics (September): 138-147.

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.

P. Nguyen-Hoang, and John Yinger. Forthcoming. “How Salience and Framing Alter the Behavioral Impacts of Property Tax Relief.” Public Finance and Management. Available on the class blackboard page.

Topic 10:  The Demand for Local Public Services III:  The Flypaper Effect 

Highly Recommended Reading:

P. Nguyen-Hoang, and John Yinger. Forthcoming. “The Flypaper Effect: Methods, Magnitudes, and Mechanisms.” Journal of Education Finance. Available on the class blackboard page.

Optional Reading:

Allers, Maarten A., and Wouter Vermeulen. 2016. “Capitalization of Equalizing Grants and the Flypaper Effect.” Regional Science and Urban Economics 58 (2016): 115–129.

Bradford, David F., and Wallace E. Oates. 1971. “Towards a Predictive Theory of Intergovernmental Grants.” American Economic Review 61 (2): 440–48.

Topic 11:  The Demand for Local Public Services IV:  Bidding and Sorting

Highly Recommended Reading

J. Yinger. 2020. “Bidding and Sorting,” In Poverty and Proficiency: The Cost of and Demand for Local Public Education, edited by J. Yinger (World Scientific Publishing), pp. 51-71. Available on the class Blackboard page.

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.

Optional Reading:

C. Tiebout, 1956. “A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures,” Journal of Political Economy, (October): 416-424.

Topic 12:  The Demand for Local Public Services V: Tax Capitalization

Highly Recommended Reading:

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. 2020. “Property Tax Capitalization,” In J. Yinger, Editor, Poverty and Proficiency: The Cost of and Demand for Local Public Education (World Scientific Publishing), pp. 75-86. Available on the class Blackboard page.

Optional Reading:

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 13:  The Demand for Local Public Services VI:  Hedonics

Highly Recommended 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.

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.

Optional Reading:

S. Rosen, 1974. “Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition.” Journal of Political Economy 82(1): 34-55.

D. Epple, M. Peress, and H. Sieg. 2010. “Identification and Semiparametric Estimation of Equilibrium Models of Local Jurisdictions.” American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 2 (4): 195-220.

Topic 14:  The Demand for Local Public Services VII:  School Quality Capitalization

Highly Recommended 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 Reading:

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 15:  State and Local Revenue I:  Property Tax Incidence

Highly Recommended Reading:

J. Yinger. 2020. “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.

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 Reading:

D.J. Schwegman and J. Yinger. 2020. “The Shifting of the Property Tax on Urban Renters: Evidence from New York State’s Homestead Tax Option.” Working Paper, Center for Policy Research, Syracuse University, November.

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 16:  State and Local Revenue Il:  Sales Taxes

Highly Recommended Reading:

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 Reading:

D.J. Young and A. Bielinshk-Kwapisz, 2002. “Alcohol Taxes and Beverage Prices,” National Tax Journal, (March): 57-74.

Chetty, Raj, Adam Looney, and Kory Kroft. 2009. “Salience and Taxation: Theory and Evidence.” American Economic Review 99 (4): 1145–77.

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.

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 17: State and Local Revenue III: Income Taxes

Highly Recommended 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 18:  State and Local Revenue lV:  Tax Competition

Highly Recommended Reading:

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 Reading:

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 19:  State and Local Economic Development Policy I:  Impact of Tax Rates

Highly Recommended Reading:

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.

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 Reading:

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 20:  State and Local Economic Development Policy II:  Impact of Tax Breaks

Highly Recommended Reading:

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 Reading:

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 21: State and Local Bonds I: Infrastructure

Highly Recommended 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.”

Optional Reading:

J. Yinger. 2020. “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 22:  State and Local Bonds

Highly Recommended Reading:

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. 2020. “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 Reading:

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.