{"title":"The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: Searching for Supply-Side Effects","authors":"W. Gale, Claire Haldeman","doi":"10.1086/717132","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/717132","url":null,"abstract":"The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) instituted the most substantial changes in taxation in decades and was designed to boost the economy via supply-side incentives. This paper reviews these changes and examines the impacts on economic aggregates through 2019. The act clearly reduced revenue. The effect on gross domestic product is difficult to tease out of the data. Investment growth rose after the TCJA was enacted, but it was driven by trends in aggregate demand, oil prices, and intellectual capital that were unrelated to the TCJA’s supply-side incentives. Growth in business formation, employment, and median wages slowed after the TCJA was enacted. International profit shifting fell only slightly, and the boost in repatriated profits primarily led to increased share repurchases rather than new investment.","PeriodicalId":18983,"journal":{"name":"National Tax Journal","volume":"74 1","pages":"895 - 914"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47067113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Taxes and Firm Size: A 40-Year Perspective","authors":"Daniel Green, G. Plesko","doi":"10.1086/717021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/717021","url":null,"abstract":"We examine the statutory incidence of the federal corporate tax on firms by asset size over a 40-year period spanning numerous tax changes. In contrast to previous studies, which have been based upon financial statement measures of effective tax rates, we examine the relation between taxes and asset size using published tax return data and a common measure of distribution. The results suggest that the corporate tax burden has become relatively proportional to firm size over the last 40 years, only slightly favoring larger firms.","PeriodicalId":18983,"journal":{"name":"National Tax Journal","volume":"74 1","pages":"915 - 935"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49174216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom through the Ages! by Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod (Princeton University Press, 2021, Princeton, NJ, 511 pages)","authors":"William M. Gentry","doi":"10.1086/717188","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/717188","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18983,"journal":{"name":"National Tax Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45829842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Responsiveness of Medicaid Spending to the Federal Subsidy","authors":"M. Bundorf, D. Kessler","doi":"10.1086/721912","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721912","url":null,"abstract":"Although economic theory suggests that the federal government can influence spending by states through subsidies to programs that states operate, no recent work has quantified the magnitude of this effect for Medicaid, the largest program of this type in the United States. We find that Medicaid spending per enrollee responds to the magnitude of the federal subsidy. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its subsequent interpretation by the Supreme Court gave states the option to expand eligibility for their Medicaid programs in exchange for increases in the generosity of the federal subsidy for the population made eligible by the expansion. States that exercised this option increased Medicaid spending per enrollee on enrollees who were eligible even before the ACA by approximately 15 percent. Depending on the specification, this translates into an elasticity of Medicaid spending per enrollee with respect to the after-subsidy price of Medicaid to a state of −0.494 to −0.579.","PeriodicalId":18983,"journal":{"name":"National Tax Journal","volume":"75 1","pages":"661 - 680"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46591199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lucas W. Goodman, Jacob A. Mortenson, Kathleen Mackie, Heidi R. Schramm
{"title":"Leakage From Retirement Savings Accounts In The United States","authors":"Lucas W. Goodman, Jacob A. Mortenson, Kathleen Mackie, Heidi R. Schramm","doi":"10.1086/715819","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/715819","url":null,"abstract":"This paper generates new, aggregate estimates of retirement savings flows in the United States from 2003 to 2015 and provides detailed estimates of leakage from tax-preferred retirement savings accounts to preretirement-age individuals. We create a nationally representative panel of individuals using a sample of administrative tax data with more than 140 million person-year observations. These data contain information on retirement contributions, distributions, and transfers between accounts. We estimate that between 2003 and 2015 distributions from defined contribution plans and IRAs to individuals age 50 or younger were equal to 22 percent of the contributions made by this age group. When estimating the correlation between common life events and the probability of leakage, we find that job separations correspond with an increase in the probability of leakage of more than 200 percent. Job separations generating the receipt of unemployment insurance (UI) — a proxy for an involuntary job separation — are associated with higher leakage than non-UI separations. Other types of events, such as income shocks, home purchases, and the onset of tuition payments, are also associated with leakage.","PeriodicalId":18983,"journal":{"name":"National Tax Journal","volume":"74 1","pages":"689 - 719"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47602751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How Did Safety-Net Reform Affect Early Adulthood among Adolescents from Low-Income Families?","authors":"J. Bastian, Luorao Bian, J. Grogger","doi":"10.1086/716189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/716189","url":null,"abstract":"In the 1990s, the US safety net was substantially reformed. We ask how those reforms collectively affected early-career outcomes among youths who were teens when the reforms took effect. We consider employment, safety-net participation, marriage, and childbearing between the ages of 18 and 32. We take a difference-in-difference approach, tracking adolescents from two generations roughly 20 years apart. In each generation, we compare two groups, one of which was more likely to have been affected by safety-net reform than the other. We find evidence that safety-net reform increased women’s labor supply and decreased marriage.","PeriodicalId":18983,"journal":{"name":"National Tax Journal","volume":"74 1","pages":"825 - 865"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43144595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"TANF at 25: A Weaker Cash Safety Net Reaching Fewer Families and doing Less to Lift Families out of Deep Poverty","authors":"Ladonna Pavetti, Ali Safawi, Danilo Trisi","doi":"10.1086/716107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/716107","url":null,"abstract":"We analyze the 25-year trajectory of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the nation’s cash safety net for families with children. Since its creation, TANF’s story has been one of greatly diminished access, low benefits, and states diverting funding away from cash assistance, changes that have disproportionately affected the assistance available to Black families. We document how the weakened safety net under TANF contributed to a rise in deep poverty among children in single-mother families and how two defining features of TANF — work requirements and time limits — contributed to TANF’s weakness. Finally, we make policy recommendations to address TANF’s failures.","PeriodicalId":18983,"journal":{"name":"National Tax Journal","volume":"74 1","pages":"763 - 789"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48750947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Consumption, Income, and Well-Being of Single mother–headed Families 25 Years After Welfare Reform","authors":"Jeehoon Han, Bruce D. Meyer, James X. Sullivan","doi":"10.1086/716242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/716242","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate how material well-being has changed over time for single mother–headed families — the primary group affected by welfare reform and other policy changes of the 1990s. We focus on consumption as well as other indicators including components of consumption, measures of housing quality, and health insurance coverage. The results provide strong evidence that the material circumstances of single mothers improved in the decades following welfare reform. The consumption of the most disadvantaged single mother–headed families — those with low consumption or low education — rose noticeably over time and at a faster rate than for those in comparison groups.","PeriodicalId":18983,"journal":{"name":"National Tax Journal","volume":"74 1","pages":"791 - 824"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48644983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Spending and Consumption Response to A VAT Rate Increase","authors":"David B. Cashin, T. Unayama","doi":"10.1086/714368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/714368","url":null,"abstract":"This study estimates the effect of an increase in Japan’s value-added tax (VAT) rate on the timing of household expenditures and consumption, which do not necessarily coincide. The empirical analysis finds that spending on a wide range of durables and storables surged in the months prior to the tax rate increase, fell sharply upon implementation, but returned to their previous long-run levels within a few months. Nonstorable, nondurable expenditures increased slightly in the month prior to the tax rate increase but were otherwise unresponsive. A dynamic structural model of household consumption reveals that the observed spending responses were driven by stockpiling behavior, the insensitivity of durable and nondurable consumption to the tax rate increase, and strong complementarities between durables and nondurables. By mapping durable and storable expenditures into consumption, the model allows for a considerably more precise estimate of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution in consumption than the standard method, which focuses on nondurable spending only. The results, external validity checks, and marginal excess burden calculation suggest that anticipated changes in VAT rates have a large, though highly transitory, impact on household spending that generates miniscule efficiency costs.","PeriodicalId":18983,"journal":{"name":"National Tax Journal","volume":"74 1","pages":"313 - 346"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/714368","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49658970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}