Fiscal Studies最新文献

{"title":"A symposium on poverty, the safety net and child development: preface","authors":"Monica Costa Dias, Emma Tominey, Vivian Zhao","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12405","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Recent rises in the cost of living, combined with increasingly tight public budgets that pressure governments into cutting welfare spending, have renewed attention to the plights of disadvantaged families and the potential long-term consequences of living in poverty during childhood. These concerns are justified by mounting empirical evidence showing that the health, education and future labour market outcomes of children are strongly associated with the financial resources of their parental families. Yet, evidence on the extent to which income or poverty affects child outcomes remains scarce. On the policy side, the consequences of growing up in poverty and the role of the safety net in attenuating long-lasting disadvantage is a matter that attracts huge attention. Many have argued that those policies can be self-financing, by supporting the healthy childhood experiences and the formation of skills that promote successful educational and labour market trajectories.</p><p>In practice, researchers aiming to quantify the causal impact of parental financial resources and of public transfers to families with children face serious challenges. One issue is that variation in financial resources across families is associated with variation in many other family characteristics, including the skills and preferences of parents, making it difficult to disentangle the roles played by different aspects of family life. Moreover, income variation can take many forms, and it is not clear that all carry the same impacts. For instance, some families are permanently more affluent than others, and may plan accordingly for persistently higher levels of investment in children. That certainty and time consistency in investments may be valuable in themselves. In some cases, families may experience transitory changes in income that induce unexpected changes in child investment. The impacts of those shocks for child development may depend on the characteristics of the child, the family and the social or institutional environments. Public transfers to disadvantaged families often come with strings attached such as work requirements for mothers, or may be associated with stigma. All those can interfere with their impacts on children.</p><p>This symposium revises our current understanding of the long-lasting consequences of child poverty, and of the role of the safety net for protecting disadvantaged children in high-income economies. This is an especially good time to take stock of what has been learned so far as public transfers increasingly contribute to keep children out of poverty. Figure 1 illustrates this point for the UK. It plots the recent evolution of child poverty rates in lone-parent and dual-adult parent households using two measures: household disposable income, represented by the solid lines, and household income excluding income from benefits, represented by the dotted lines. It shows that, when benefits are excluded from family income, poverty rates among","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"46 1","pages":"5-7"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12405","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143865712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Theoretical and empirical perspectives on the link between poverty, parenting and children's outcomes","authors":"Pedro Carneiro,&nbsp;Sarah Cattan,&nbsp;Henrique Neves","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12404","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this paper we examine different channels through which poverty affects child outcomes, as well as the evidence regarding the magnitude of their impacts. We begin by discussing the family investment model, which highlights the constraints that poverty or lack of income pose on a family's ability to purchase goods or services that contribute to the child's overall development, and the family stress model, which emphasises the emotional toll that experiencing poverty can have on parents and (directly and indirectly) on children. We then devote special attention to a more recent perspective on the family stress model, originating at the intersection of cognitive and developmental psychology and behavioural economics, which posits that another pathway through which poverty-induced stress can affect family well-being is through the effect of poverty on parental cognitive functioning.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"46 1","pages":"9-35"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12404","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143865713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Who gives and receives substantial inter vivos financial transfers in Britain?","authors":"Bee Boileau,&nbsp;David Sturrock","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12403","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We document new stylised facts about substantial gifts and loans made in Great Britain. The vast majority of gifts and loans are made from parents to their adult children, and we find substantive differences in receiving by ethnicity, region and gender. Gifts are only weakly related to individuals' economic resources once their parents' socio-economic status is accounted for, but loans are made more frequently to those with lower wealth. Transfers modestly increase inequalities in total inflows (income plus transfers) over early adulthood. Over an eight-year period, cumulative transfers received are worth 0.5 per cent of income for those in the bottom income fifth compared to 2.6 per cent of income for the top fifth. Over half of the value of gifts is given by the wealthiest fifth of individuals and transfers increase inequalities between those with parents of higher and lower socio-economic status. However, transfers decrease relative inequalities in wealth, being largest as a share of wealth for those at the bottom of the wealth distribution.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"46 2","pages":"261-280"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12403","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144299522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prompt payment enforcement on framework agreements for public hospitals: evidence from Chile","authors":"Felipe Jordán","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12402","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Demand aggregation through Framework Agreements (FAs) has emerged as a promising tool to support the efficient expansion of affordable healthcare in developing countries. However, the effectiveness of FAs in achieving lower costs may be hindered if prompt payment is not enforced. This paper estimates the impacts of a reform implemented in Chile in 2014, which introduced a prompt payment enforcement procedure in the FAs that supplied public hospitals. Under this reform, firms were allowed to suspend dispatches until overdue bills were paid. The results from a difference-in-differences estimation indicate that hospitals with greater exposure to the reform, measured by their larger share of late bill payments, reduced their payment delays after 2013 compared with less-exposed hospitals, without compromising health-care quality. The resulting decrease in the average financial cost of FAs led to lower prices, highlighting the importance of prompt payment enforcement for realising savings through FAs.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"46 2","pages":"167-183"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144300355","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":"Firm responses to an interest barrier: empirical evidence","authors":"Jarkko Harju,&nbsp;Ilpo Kauppinen,&nbsp;Olli Ropponen","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12401","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this paper, we study the effects of an interest barrier (IB) that was introduced in Finland in 2014 to restrict the profit-shifting opportunities of multinational enterprises (MNEs). We employ data from the Orbis database on Finnish, Swedish and Danish MNEs and a difference-in-differences methodology, where Swedish and Danish MNEs serve as a control group. We examine the effects of the IB on financial expenses, debt levels and overall economic activity of firms. We find that Finnish MNEs responded to the IB by decreasing their financial expenses. We also find that the most affected firms decreased their debt levels due to the reform. Our results also suggest that the financial expense response is followed by a change in the use of transfer pricing as a method to shift profits between tax jurisdictions. We do not find evidence of total output changes among treated firms, which suggests that the IB did not affect the real activity of the treated MNEs.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"46 2","pages":"211-237"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144299712","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":"Who pays for a VAT hike at an international border?","authors":"Emmanuel Chávez,&nbsp;Cristóbal Domínguez","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12400","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12400","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This research studies the effects of a value added tax (VAT) reform that raised the rate from 11 to 16 per cent at localities close to international borders in Mexico. Using difference-in-differences, we find that the VAT hike increased prices by one-third the size of the full-passthrough counterfactual. Moreover, we find that workers absorbed part of the VAT hike, as the reform had a negative effect on workers’ compensation. Informality, competition across the border, worker mobility and earnings level drive the effects we find.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"46 2","pages":"185-210"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144299519","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":"Will childcare subsidies increase the labour supply of mothers in Ireland?","authors":"Karina Doorley,&nbsp;Dora Tuda,&nbsp;Luke Duggan","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12399","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We study the effect of the largest childcare subsidy scheme in Ireland, a country where, historically, mothers provided childcare and did not participate on the labour market. In 2019, the cost of full-time centre-based childcare was among the most expensive in the OECD. At the end of 2019, a means-tested childcare subsidy was introduced to improve childcare affordability, but nothing is known of the maternal labour supply effects. We model the joint decision of labour supply and childcare for lone and coupled mothers of children under six. Mothers are likely to respond to the introduction of childcare subsidies in 2019 by switching from informal childcare to formal childcare (12 percentage points), and by slightly increasing their participation in the labour market (0.5 percentage points). We simulate that recent (2023) reforms of the National Childcare Scheme, which increase the generosity and the scope of the subsidy, will increase mothers' participation by one further percentage point, but also substantially decrease the demand for informal childcare. Extending childcare subsidies to informal care (such as childminders and nannies) would decrease the demand for formal childcare and further increase maternal labour supply.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"46 2","pages":"239-259"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12399","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144300433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Has COVID-19 vaccination success increased the marginal willingness to pay taxes?","authors":"José María Durán-Cabré,&nbsp;Alejandro Esteller-Moré,&nbsp;Leonzio Rizzo,&nbsp;Riccardo Secomandi","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12398","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12398","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The COVID-19 vaccination campaign can be regarded as a public-sector success story. Given the shock caused by the pandemic, the highly visible and successful response of the public authorities in rolling out the vaccination might have elicited an increase in public trust. We test whether the vaccination process increased the marginal willingness to pay taxes (MWTP). Taking advantage of the different paths taken by the vaccination roll-out in Spain, we employ a difference-in-differences empirical strategy, complemented by an event study, to infer causality running from vaccination coverage to MWTP. We find an increase in MWTP caused by the good governance of the vaccination campaign.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"46 1","pages":"125-137"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12398","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143865915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The safety net and child health and well-being: evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom","authors":"Anna Aizer,&nbsp;Adriana Lleras-Muney","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12397","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12397","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Children are often a major beneficiary of social safety net programmes because they have higher rates of poverty. We review the evidence on whether, and to what extent, safety net spending via cash and in-kind benefits (nutrition, early childhood education, housing and health care) affects child health and well-being and, ultimately, children's income in adulthood. We also consider how recent changes to the safety net in the United States and the United Kingdom may affect child outcomes. We conclude that the safety net can and does help children who are growing up in poverty, with positive long-term gains, especially among the most disadvantaged. While there is some evidence that parents may change their behaviours in response to incentives to maintain eligibility for safety net programmes, these changes appear small and, on net, children appear to be better off as a result of these programmes. A comprehensive study of the impact of the generosity and structure of the safety net on child outcomes and intergenerational mobility remains for future research.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"46 1","pages":"37-63"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143865654","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":"Tax credits and child outcomes: lessons from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada","authors":"Katherine Michelmore","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12396","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12396","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Over the last several decades, there have been historic shifts in the structure of cash transfer programmes in Western, developed countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. For all three of these countries, the turn of the 21^st century marked a shift away from unconditional cash transfer programmes, such as traditional cash welfare, towards an emphasis on benefits that encourage or require work. In this paper, I review the evidence on the impact of tax credits on child outcomes, focusing on what is known about child-oriented tax credits in the US (i.e. earned income tax credit and child tax credit), the UK (i.e. working families’ tax credit, child tax credit and working tax credit) and Canada (i.e. Canada child tax benefit, national child benefit and Canada child benefit). Overwhelmingly, the evidence from these three countries suggests that tax credits have positive impacts on children for a host of different outcomes, including infant birthweight, childhood health and achievement, educational attainment, wages, and poverty in adulthood. While there is a large, growing body of evidence on the impact of these tax credits on children, future work should further investigate the precise mechanisms through which tax credits affect child outcomes, the characteristics of children most affected by these credits, and the importance of how frequently the credits are distributed.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"46 1","pages":"65-90"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12396","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143865652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}