This paper documents the interstate variation in capital gains taxation and examines the relation between the marginal tax rate on capital gains and aggregated state-level realizations between 1979 and 1990. Using state-level aggregated data, rather than data on individual taxpayers, alleviates the problem that the marginal tax rate is endogenous to the amount of capital gains realized. The estimated elasticity of realizations with respect to the tax rate is -0.65, smaller than that found by most researchers using panel data. This finding is robust to a variety of alternative specifications.

James M. Poterba, Lawrence H. Summers, Unemployment Benefits and Labor Market Transitions: A Multinomial Logit Model with Errors in Classification, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 77, No. 2 (May, 1995), pp. 207-216

In this paper we construct measures of tax incidence over the life-cycle and compare these measures to traditional measures based on annual data. We show that annual measures of the incidence of taxes on consumption goods may differ from life-cycle measures for three reasons. First, annual measures of income reflect transitory components which should have smaller effects on consumption than permanent changes in income. Second, income measured in a single period differs from lifetime income due to age-related differences in earnings. Third, consumption of certain items follows life-cycle patterns independent of changes in income. Surprisingly, we find that these effects cause almost no change in the assessment of the incidence of taxes applying to the consumption of cigarettes. For alcohol, however, we find that a tax on its consumption is slightly less regressive when measured with respect to lifetime income than when measured with respect to annual income.

Market disruption or the threat thereof constitutes grounds for restraining countries under the U.S. Multifibre Arrangement (MFA). Since 1980, however, countries accounting for very small shares of U.S. imports have been restrained. This study estimates the determinants of U.S. voluntary export restraints under MFA I and MFA II-III using a bivariate probit model with sample selection. Results show a shift from targeting large developing country exporters to targeting those that are small but have rapidly growing sales. This raises the cost of the MFA to the United States. It also suggests that expansion of exports by developing countries will be met by restrictions on market access.

This paper estimates a dynamic demand model for liquor in the United States using panel data from 43 states. Because of taste changes over time and between states in liquor consumption, purely time series or cross sectional studies do not elicit reliable price elasticity estimates. This study makes the case for pooling and shows how one can control for individual state effects and endogeneity of the regressors using estimators suited for a dynamic demand model. Our results indicate that the long-run price elasticity is in the -0.7 range. The findings also support strong habit persistence, a small positive income elasticity, and very weak evidence of bootlegging from adjoining states. The magnitude of the long-run price effect suggests that sin taxes can serve not only as an important income source but also as a significant deterrent effect.

This paper proposes a methodology for obtaining estimates of firm-specific technical change econometrically and contrasts those estimates with a multilateral total factor productivity index. Based on a panel data set of airlines, two measures are contrasted in a variety of ways. To the extent that output characteristics differ as in the case of airlines, the two measures differ significantly. Both measures are regressed on a variety of factors potentially influencing technical efficiency, confirming that improvements in fuel efficiency and load factor have played major roles, with hubbing and competition playing smaller roles, in explaining efficiency improvements.