|
National Tax
Association
92nd ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON TAXATION
Sheraton Colony Square Midtown
Atlanta, GA
24-26 October, 1999
PROGRAM
SUNDAY,
OCTOBER 24
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
10:30-NOON
Fiscal Reform in the
Russian Federation
Since very early in the
transition, it has been clear that a fundamental piece of the transformation of the
Russian economy to a market economy would be the reform of its tax system and the exercise
of fiscal discipline to downsize the claim of the public sector on the economy. It is no
secret that the Russian Federation has had a hard time in carrying out these important
reforms. The reasons for this disappointing record are multiple and complex, and often
quite different from those repeated in the Western press. This session examines first, the
successes and failures of tax reform at the federal level and the overall performance of
Russia's tax system over the past
seven years; second, the most important aspects of tax reform at the regional and local
level; and third, the difficulties of understanding and quantifying the public sector in
Russia today.
| Moderator: |
Elaine Grigsby, USAID, Moscow
|
Presenters: |
Jorge Martinez-Vazquez
and Sally Wallace, Georgia State University - Tax Reform in the Transition: The Ups
and Downs of the Russian Federation
John Mikesell, Indiana University - Decentralizing Government
Finances in the Russian Federation: The Regional Sales and Imputed Income Taxes
Mark Sundberg and Alexander Morozov, The World Bank -
Russia Public Expenditure Analysis: Navigating in the Twilight
|
| Discussants: |
Roy W. Bahl, Georgia State University
William F. Fox, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville
Victoria Summers, International Monetary Fund |
The Economic Effects of Taxation
One of the central questions in public
economics is how income taxation affects individual decisions. The income tax system may
influence investment in education, private contributions to public goods, and labor supply
decisions. For example, the Georgia HOPE Credit for education expenses was the precursor
for the federal HOPE Credit and provides some insight into the effect of an education tax
credit. The high rates of estate taxes may affect behavior by altering charitable
contributions as a means of avoiding the high rate of taxation. The Tax Reform Act of
1986, which lowered marginal tax rates for high income individuals, provides a source for
investigating the effect of taxes on labor supply and the implications for distributional
consequences of tax changes. This session considers each of these possible economic
effects of taxation.
| Moderator: |
Stacy
Dickert-Conlin, Maxwell School, Syracuse University
|
Presenters: |
Susan Dynarski,
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and NBER - The Economic Effect of the
HOPE Credit: Evidence from Georgia
David Joulfaian, Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the
Treasury - The Effects of Estate Taxes on Charitable Bequests
Jeff Kubik, Syracuse University - The Incidence of the Personal
Income Tax: Evidence from the Tax Reform Act of 1986
|
| Discussants: |
Julie-Anne M. Cronin,
Office of Tax Analysis U.S. Department of the Treasury
Peter Brady, Federal Reserve Board |
Federal Incentives and State Redistributive
Spending
This session is devoted broadly to state
redistributional efforts, both on the spending and the tax side. Given the conversion from
open-ended federal matching grants for AFDC to fixed block grants under TANF, for
understanding state behavior under block grants it is important to understand how states
have responded to previous grant-in-aid incentives. Two of the papers address that issue.
One considers the extent to which states have allowed Food Stamps to substitute for cash
assistance, and tries to decompose state responses into price and displacement effects.
The second paper uses data from the 1940s and 1950s to estimate the price elasticity of
state welfare spending with respect to the federal matching subsidy, thus getting around
the correlation between income and state matching share that has been present under the
Medicaid matching formula. The third paper considers recent state tax initiatives and
their effect on low-income households.
| Moderator: |
Howard Chernick,
Hunter College of the City University of New York
|
Presenters: |
Howard Chernick -
State Fiscal Substitution between Food Stamps and Cash Assistance
Katherine Baicker, Dartmouth College - State Responses to
Federal Matching Incentives under the AFDC Program
Elaine Maag and Diane Lim
Rogers, The Urban Institute - The New Federalism and State Tax Policies toward
Low-Income Families
|
| Discussant: |
Elizabeth Powers, University of
Illinois |
Current Issues in U.S. Property Taxation
Most real property in the U.S. is assessed by
local assessors. The first paper looks at 19 recent court cases from across the U.S. to
examine local assessment skill and judicial judgment regarding appeals of property
assessments. The second paper examines the failure of existing property tax practices to
take into account rapid change in technology and its impact on many items of tangible
personal property. The third paper examines the economic and fiscal impacts of the major
change in property taxation enacted by the New Hampshire legislature in 1999. In response
to a Supreme Court school funding suit, the legislature replaced a substantial portion of
local property taxes with a uniform statewide property tax.
| Moderator: |
Wayne G. Eggert,
Lucent Technologies Inc.
|
Presenters: |
John O. Behrens,
Attorney-at-Law - Value by the Case, or Assessments Go to Court
Michael Clarkson, Technical Valuation Services, Inc. - Property
Tax and Technological Obsolescence
Lisa Shapiro, Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell; Richard
England, University of New Hampshire; Daphne A. Kenyon, The Josiah
Bartlett Center & Simmons College; and Charles Connor - The Economic and Fiscal
Impacts of a Uniform Statewide Property Tax
|
| Discussant: |
James R. Davis, Board of Tax Assessors,
Macon-Bibb County, Georgia |
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
1:30-3:00 PM
Frontiers of Public Finance: 1999 Outstanding
Doctoral Dissertation Award Winners
| Moderator: |
William Oakland, Tulane
University |
Current Issues in Business Taxation
| Moderator: |
Gerald Auten, Office of Tax
Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury
|
Presenters: |
Gerald Auten and Edith Brashares,
Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury - Do Taxes Spoil the Use of
Tradeable Emission Allowances to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
Susan Nelson, Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the
Treasury - Current Issues in the Taxation of Small Business
Abraham Schneier, McKevitt and Schneier - Taxes and
Small Business: The Views of the Small Business Community
James B. Mackie, III, Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury
- The Comeback of the Corporate Income Tax: Why Have Tax Payments Increased while the
Average Tax Rate Declined? |
State and Local Finance at
the Millennium
State and local
governments are confronted with a host of legal, political, economic, demographic, and
technological forces. This session will explore how state and local government finances
might change in response to some of these pressures.
| Moderator: |
David L. Sjoquist, Georgia State
University.
|
Presenters: |
James Alm, Georgia State University
- The Vanishing Taxpayer: The Future of State-Local Government Finances
Richard R. Hawkins and David R. Eppright,
University of West Florida - Economic Structure and the Local Sales Tax Threat from
Electronic Commerce
Lawrence O. Picus, University of Southern California; and Ross
Rubenstein, Georgia State University - Politics, the Courts, and the Economy:
Implications for the Future of School Financing
Bruce A. Wallin, Norteastern University - State Finance at the Millennium
|
| Discussants: |
Roy W. Bahl, Georgia State
University
Helen F. Ladd, Duke University |
Financing Transportation
in an Intergovernmental System
This panel
examines intergovernmental issues in the finance of transportation. Most transportation
programs involve two or three levels of government, and this raises issues of grant
design, allocation formulas, and mandates. Also, the advantages of debt vs. current
revenues as a finance source for public investment is examined.
| Moderator: |
John Bartle, University of
Nebraska, Omaha.
|
Presenters: |
James Alm, Georgia State University
- The Vanishing Taxpayer: The Future of State-Local Government Finances
John Bartle - Financing the Airport of the Future: The
Small Aircraft Transportation System
W. Bartley Hildreth and W. Edward Flentje, Wichita State
University - State Initiatives in Transportation Investment: Two Kansas Cases |
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
3:15-4:45 PM
The Use of Publicly Available Data to Evaluate
Tax Policy
This session addresses the use and
limitations of publicly available data to evaluate tax policy changes. The papers will
address data issues in the context of research on issues in individual, corporate, and
international taxation, with a focus on micro data sets commonly used by researchers.
| Moderator: |
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Maxwell
School, Syracuse University
|
Presenters: |
Miguel Gouveia, Catholic University
of Portugal; and Robert P. Strauss, Carnegie-Mellon University - Effective Federal
Income Tax Rates: 1966-1991
George A. Plesko, Massachusetts Institute of Technology -
Book-Tax Differences and the Measurement of Corporate Income
Lillian F. Mills, University of Arizona - Hide and Seek:
Investigating Transfer Pricing by Multinational Companies Using Public and Private Data
|
| Discussant: |
Douglas Holtz-Eakin |
Revenue Forecasting Experiences of Federal,
State and Local Governments
This session brings
together the experiences of federal, state, and local governments in revenue forecasting.
Forecasting techniques and issues will be highlighted. Current methodologies for selected
revenue sources, including federal excise and state gaming revenues, will be discussed.
Alternative forecasting approaches will be compared to examine issues specific to the
different levels of government. Any revenue forecasting lessons to be learned among
different levels of government will also be highlighted.
| Moderator: |
Ranjana Madhusudhan, New Jersey
Department of Treasury
|
Presenters: |
William Anderson, Budget and
Planning Division, State of Nevada - Forecasting Gaming Revenues in Nevada: Methodologies
and Accuracy
Mark Haas and Andrew Lockwood, Michigan Department of
Treasury - What Happens to Lottery Revenues When New Casinos Are Opened?
Marilyn Rubin, John Jay College, City University of New York -
Approaches to Revenue Forecasting by State and Local Governments
John McClelland, Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of
Treasury - Forecasting Tobacco Taxes and Estimating the Revenue Effects of Proposed
Increases in Excise Taxes/Tobacco Settlement Payments
Donald J.S. Brean, University of Toronto - Tax and Expenditure
Forecasts: Biases, Randomness, and Correlations |
Educational Expenditures, School Choice, and
School Quality
These
papers report research results on several questions that are at the heart of the ongoing
debate about school policy. To what extent can the problems of public schools be solved by
additional spending? That is, do dollars matter for educational outcomes? How are factors
other than resources (dollars), such as peers, family and community income, and ethnicity,
correlated with educational outcomes? How can school aid formulas be adjusted to account
for the higher costs of educating at-risk (poor or minority) students? How can the
delivery of education be altered to improve the outcomes attained with given resources? In
particular, how can competition among suppliers of education be introduced or increased?
What evidence is there that increased competition improves outcomes and/or decreases
costs?
| Moderator: |
Thomas A. Downes, Tufts
University
|
Presenters: |
Thomas F. Pogue, The University of
Iowa; and James Maxey, The University of Iowa and ACT - Public School Success and Failure: Weighing
the Effects of Dollars, Family, Peers and Community
Corrine Taylor, Wellesley College - Challenges in Linking
Student Outcomes and School Expenditures
Gerhard Glomm, Doug Harris, and Te-Fen Lo,
Michigan State University - Charter School Entry
Helen F. Ladd, Duke University - School Choice in New Zealand
|
| Discussants: |
Thomas A. Downes
Leslie E. Papke, Michigan State University |
Fiscal Decentralization in Transition Countries:
The Role of Local Democratic Governance
Countries in
Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are developing new
intergovernmental fiscal systems-moving from the highly centralized systems of the past 50
years to more decentralized systems. Such fiscal decentralization can improve the level
and quality of public services being provided, ensure the most effective use of limited
public resources, and strengthen civic society in emerging democracies. The first two
papers describe approaches to fiscal decentralization in transition countries and the
important factors in describing the extent of fiscal decentralization. The final paper
discusses the concept of local democratic governance and explores its importance in
achieving efficiency benefits associated with fiscal decentralization.
| Moderator: |
Michael E. Bell, MEB Associates,
Inc.
|
Presenters: |
Deborah Wetzel, The World
Bank - Decentralization in Former Socialist Economies: Progress and Prospects
Serdar Yilmaz, George Mason University -
Decentralization: Is It Good for Growth? Is It Good for Progress?
Michael E. Bell, and Charles Adams, Ohio State University
- Fiscal Decentralization Indicators: Local Democratic Governance
|
| Discussants: |
Anwar Shah, The World Bank |
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL TAX
ASSOCIATION
5:00 PM
RECEPTION
6:00 PM
MONDAY,
OCTOBER 25
Ron Cummings' Computer
Experiments on Tax Evasion
On Monday, October 25,
and Tuesday afternoon, October 26, conference participants will have the opportunity to
participate in a computer lab experiment on the factors that affect tax compliance and
hear a summary of the results of previous experimental research on the topic. Factors that
have been investigated include the probability of audit, the penalty rate, and the
marginal tax rate. The computer experiments have produced some surprising results.
Ron Cummings, Georgia
State University Noah Langdale Eminent Scholar in Environmental Policy, has set up the
lab. Susan Laury of the Economics Department will run the experiments at the Georgia State
University Policy Research Center. The Center is a short subway ride from the conference
site.
Each
session is limited to 22 people. The schedule is: Monday - 8:30-9:30 AM., 10:30-11:30 AM,
2:00-3:00 PM, and 4:00-5:00 PM. Tuesday - 2:00-3:00 PM.
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
8:30-10:00 AM
International Tax Issues
This
session addresses three contentious areas of international tax research. Many studies of
international tax issues use financial statement data, which may yield different answers
to tax policy related questions than tax return data. The first paper compares tax data
derived from financial statements with similar data based on tax returns. The second paper
tests and confirms the prediction that the foreign location decisions of U.S.-based
financial services multinationals, in contrast to manufacturers, should have become less
sensitive to differences in country tax rates as a result of changes made by the Tax
Reform Act of 1986. The third paper examines what would happen if the United States
changed its international tax system, which taxes business income on repatriation and
allows a credit for foreign taxes paid, to a dividend exemption system (sometimes called a
territorial system).
| Moderator: |
William C. Randolph, Office
of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury
|
Presenters: |
Donald Rousslang and Gerald
Silverstein, Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury - Tax Rates on
Foreign Investment Income: A Comparison of Financial Statement and Tax Return Measures
Rosanne Altshuler, Rutgers University; and R. Glenn Hubbard,
Columbia University - The Effect of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 on the Location of
Assets in Financial Services Firms
Harry Grubert, Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the
Treasury; and John Mutti, Grinnell College - Dividend Exemption versus the Current
System for Taxing Foreign Business Income
|
| Discussants: |
Douglas Shackelford, University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill
William C. Randolph
Jack Mintz, University of Toronto |
Taxation and Social Policy
Recent
policy changes have renewed interest in the tax system as a vehicle for impacting social
policy. As an example, the 1996 welfare reform ended welfare as an entitlement, thereby
making the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) the largest cash transfer program for
low-income families. The expansion of the EITC raises questions about its implications for
family structure and income distribution. The marriage penalty and the mortgage interest
deduction in the personal income tax both have social policy implications that are
explored in this session.
| Moderator: |
Stacy Dickert-Conlin,
Maxwell School, Syracuse University
|
Presenters: |
James Alm, Georgia State
University; Jennifer Thacher, University of Colorado; and Leslie A. Whittington,
Georgetown University - Shacking Up or Shelling Out: Income Taxes and Cohabitation
Nada Eissa and Hilary Hoynes, University of California
Berkeley - Tax-Transfer Policy and Marriage
Peter Brady, Federal Reserve Board; Julie-Anne M. Cronin,
Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury; and Scott Houser,
California State University Fresno, Regional Variation in the Federal Mortgage Interest
Deduction
|
| Discussants: |
Dan T. Rosenbaum, University of
North Carolina-Greensboro
Donald J. Bruce, University of Tennessee Knoxville |
Implications of the Report of the National
Gambling Impact Study Commission
This panel
will discuss the implications of the report of the National Gambling Impact Study
Commission.(NGISC). The Commission was created by the Congress in 1996 and charged with
conducting a comprehensive legal and factual study of the social and economic impacts of
gambling on federal, state, local, and Native American tribal governments, and on
communities and social institutions. The Commission met for two years and released its
final report in June 1998. Panelists will discuss the gaming environment in the gaming
states and examine the implications of the NGISC report for future state policies.
| Moderator: |
Ranjana Madhusudhan, New Jersey
Department of Treasury
|
Panelists: |
Charles Clotfelter, Duke University
Rebecca Paul, Georgia State Lottery
Linda Minash, Wisconsin Division of Gaming
Erik R. Batzloff, Spintek Gaming Technologies, Inc., Las Vegas
Joel Lunde, Iowa Department of Management
Gary C. Anders, School of Management, Arizona State University
West |
State Taxation of Value Added
The idea for U.S. use of a value added
tax was first proposed by Thomas S. Adams to the National Tax Association at its 11th
Annual Conference on Taxation (1917, New York). The first proposals for state use of a VAT
followed in 1930 (Iowa) and 1932 (Alabama). Since then, the tax has been discussed in
several states, but with the exception of Hawaii (1932), Michigan (1953-67 and 1975), and
New Hampshire (1993), it has fared much better with tax commissions than with
legislatures. However, the legislative view may be changing as there is renewed interest
in the VAT as a state revenue source.
| Moderator: |
Philip M. Dearborn, President,
Greater Washington Research Center
|
Presenters: |
Charles E. McLure, Jr.,
Hoover Institution, Stanford University - Implementing a State VAT: Breaking the Logjam in
Tax Assignment
James A. Papke, Purdue University - Challenging Tradition:
Substituting a VAT for the Local Tax on Business Personalty
Kelly D. Edmiston, Georgia State University - The VAT and
State Economic Development
William F. Fox and LeAnn Luna, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville - What if There is a National VAT?
|
| Discussant: |
Elizabeth McNichol, Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities |
GENERAL SESSION
10:15 AM-Noon
The Pros and Cons of Individual Accounts in
Reforming Social Security
Most of the current proposals for
reforming Social Security include the creation of individual accounts. Even the President,
who does not include such accounts in his Social Security reform plan, proposes
establishing individual retirement accounts outside of the system. What are the perceived
benefits of individual accounts that have led to their wide acceptance and popularity? Are
these benefits likely to be realized, and if so, at what cost? This panel of distinguished
experts will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating individual accounts
into the Social Security system.
| Moderator: |
Julia Lynn Coronado, Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve System
|
Presenters: |
Sylvester Schieber, Vice President,
Research and Information, Watson Wyatt Worldwide
Leonard E. Burman, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis,
U.S. Department of the Treasury
C. Eugene Steuerle, Senior Fellow, The Urban Institute
Dallas Salisbury, President and CEO, Employee Benefit Research
Institute
William Shipman, Principal, State Street Corporation |
LUNCHEON NOON-1:30 PM
Speaker: The Honorable Michael Leavitt,
Governor of Utah
GENERAL SESSION
1:45-3:15 PM
Taxing Transactions in
e-Commerce-Whither or How?
It is widely reported that electronic
commerce will, if it has not already, revolutionize the way goods and services are ordered
and delivered to businesses and consumers. Governments are worried that this new medium
will drastically undermine traditional transaction tax bases. Businesses are worried that
commerce and technological innovation will be dampened if the tax collector comes calling.
Studies are being done. Congress has created a commission. The states and local
governments are ready to act. But should e-commerce in all its forms be taxed? If so, how,
given the complexity and constraints that exist? What effect will new taxation have on the
use and growth of this virtual trade route?
| Moderator: |
James R. Eads, Partner, Ernst &
Young, Atlanta
|
Presenters: |
Charles E. McLure, Jr., Hoover
Institution at Stanford University
Walter Hellerstein, Professor of Law, University of Georgia
T. Jerry Jackson, Revenue Commissioner,
State of Georgia |
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
3:30-5:00
The Relationship between
Fiscal Preferences and Tax Systems
Public choice scholars are concerned,
among other things, with determining the relationships among taxpayer characteristics and
preferences and the design of fiscal systems. These are examined for three different
aspects of taxationCthe structure of local tax systems, tax evasion, and redistributive
activitiesCin the three papers in this session. The first two of these papers relate to
tax systems in European countries.
| Moderator: |
Harold M. Hochman,
Lafayette College
|
Presenters: |
John Ashworth,
University of Durham, UK; and Bruno Heyndels, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium -
Reference Point Effects in Local Taxation: It All Depends on How You Look At It
Giorgio Brosio, Universitą di Torino, Italy; and Alberto
Cassone, Universitą del Piemonte Orientale, Allessandria, Italy - Tax Evasion across
Italy: Rational Noncompliance or Inadequate Civic Concern
Kenneth E. Greene, State University of New York-Binghamton -
Sources of Support for Redistributive Activities and Other Public Means of Doing Good
|
| Discussant: |
Paul Rubin, Emory University |
Corporate Tax Shelters
| Moderator: |
James B. Mackie, III, Office
of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury
|
Presenters: |
Joseph M. Mikrut, Tax Legislative
Counsel, U.S. Department of the Treasury - The Treasury White Paper: A Summary
Kenneth W. Gideon, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington DC
- Transparency and Corporate Tax Shelter Proposals
George A. Plesko, Massachusetts Institute of Technology -
Evidence and Theory on Corporate Tax Shelters |
Simplifying Sales Tax Compliance through
Managed Audits
| Moderator: |
Terrell E. Schroeder, Marvin F.
Poer & Company
|
Presenters: |
Mary Pat Kloster, American Tax
Association
Edward M. Many, Georgia Department of Revenue |
Private Provision of Public Services
Changes in government provision of public
services and the willingness of taxpayers to finance them have led those seeking to
maintain (or even increase) their level of public services to search for alternative
financing. Governments have turned to a wide range of non-tax revenues, including
voluntary contributions, user fees, and lotteries. Individuals have turned to private
provision and financing to supplement the public bundle. Increasing reliance on private
financing and provision of public services raises questions about equity and efficiency.
This session provides recent empirical research into these phenomena.
| Moderator: |
Amy Ellen Schwartz, Wagner School,
New York University
|
Presenters: |
Julie Berry Cullen,
University of Michigan - Do Parental Responses Undermine School Finance Equalization?
Amy Ellen Schwartz - Private Money/Public Schools - Evidence
from New York City
Benjamin P. Scafidi, Jr., and Ross Rubenstein, Georgia
State University - Who Pays and Who Benefits? Examining the Distributional Consequences of
the Georgia Lottery for Education
Jennifer Ward-Batts, Population Studies Center, University of
Michigan - Do Public Transfers Crowd Out Private Transfer Income? An Empirical
Investigation of Responses among Lone-Mother Families in the UK
|
| Discussant: |
Judy Temple, Northern Illinois University |
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
8:30-10:00 AM
Tax Aspects of Electricity Restructuring
| Moderator: |
Dennis Zimmerman, Congressional
Research Service, Library of Congress
|
Presenters: |
Lon Peters, Northwest Economic
Research, Inc. - Municipal Tax-Exempt Debt in the Electric Power Industry
Bruce F. Davie, Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the
Treasury; and Dennis Zimmerman - Financing Social and Environmental Policy
Objectives in a Restructured Electricity Industry
Joseph S. Graves, PHB Hagler Bailly Inc. - Comparisons of Taxes
Paid by Electric Utilities with Different Ownership Forms
|
| Discussant: |
William Dinkelacker, Office
of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury |
Evaluating State Tax Expenditures
Twenty-five years have passed since the
Congress mandated tax expenditure analysis as part of overall federal budgetary policy.
During this period, several state and some foreign governments have followed suit,
compiling their own tax expenditure budgets. Stanley S. Surrey, the creator of the tax
expenditure analysis concept, hoped that it would promote simple, efficient, and fair tax
and spending strategies and, as a result, would encourage governments to design tax
systems that conformed more closely to normative ideals. To what extent has tax
expenditure budgeting lived up to Surrey's expectations in practice? Has it inspired the
kind of analysis and debate that he hoped it would? Or have governments simply compiled
lists of tax expenditures that largely have been ignored in policy formation? How
widespread is tax expenditure analysis? What conceptual and empirical issues have been
found the most perplexing and controversial? This panel will call on tax expenditure
analysts from the federal, state, and foreign governments to address these questions.
| Moderator: |
Robert Tannenwald, Federal Reserve
Bank of Boston
|
Presenters: |
Mark Ibele, California Legislative
Analyst's Office
Ronald Jeremias, Joint Tax Committee, U.S. Congress
Arthur Friedson, Office of Tax Policy Analysis, New York State
Department of Taxation and Finance |
Longer Term Perspectives for Policymakers:
Making Use of Panel Data
| Moderator: |
James R. Nunns, Office of Tax
Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury
|
Presenters: |
Barbara A. Butrica and Howard M.
Iams, Social Security Administration - Using Panel Data to Project the Retirement
Income of Future Retirees
James Cilke, Julie-Anne M. Cronin, Matthew Eichner,
Janet McCubbin, James R. Nunns, and Paul Smith, U.S. Department of
the Treasury - Developing a Panel Model for Tax Analysis |
Property Taxation in Africa
The
potential role for a property tax in transition economies has received considerable
attention in the past decade. African nations confront many of the same challenges of
decentralization, privatization, and restitution faced in Central and Eastern Europe,
together with additional special issues, such as dealing with tribal landholdings,
informal settlements, large-scale land occupation, and the legacy of colonialism and
apartheid. This session will review specific African experiences with property taxation
and consider the implications of these case studies for more general application of the
tax.
| Moderator: |
Joan Youngman, Lincoln Institute of
Land Policy
|
Presenters: |
Rexford A. Ahene, Lafayette College
- Property Taxation and Property Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa
Roy Kelly, Harvard Institute for International Development -
Property Tax Reform in East Africa
Riėl C D Franzsen, University of South Africa - Property Taxation
in the New South Africa: Policy and Politics
Philip van Ryneveld, City of Cape Town - Property Tax Reform in Cape
Town
|
| Discussant: |
Jane Malme, Lincoln Institute of
Land Policy |
GENERAL SESSION
10:15 AM-Noon
Funding a Tax Cut with
the Federal Surplus: What are the Issues?
| Moderator: |
Diana
Furchtgott-Roth, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
|
Presenter: |
Mark
Weinberger, Principal, Washington Counsel PC |
COMMITTEE LUNCHES AND PRESENTATION OF NEW NTA WEB
SITE
Noon-1:30 PM
Ron Cummings'
Computer Experiments on Tax Evasion (see Monday program), 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
1:45-3:15 PM
Term Limits: Their Effects on Governance and
Public Policy
| Moderator: |
Ronald
Fisher, Michigan State University |
Current Issues in Individual Taxation
| Moderator: |
TBA
|
Presenters: |
Donald J. Bruce,
University of Tennessee Knoxville - Effects of the United States Tax System on Transitions
into Self-Employment
Michael Calegari, Georgia State University - Partial Exclusion
of Investment Income in a Hybrid Income-Consumption Tax
Mario Ferrero, Universitą del Piemonte Orientale and
Universitą di Torino, Italy - A New Tax on Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth
|
| Discussant: |
Harold M. Hochman,
Lafayette College |
State and Local Responses to School Finance
Equalization
Since 1970, most states have enacted one
or more pieces of school finance equalization legislation. This session looks at the
responses of state legislatures, local school districts, and families to changes in the
way public schools are financed. Cullen and Loeb investigate the effects of limitations on
localities' discretion over spending on elementary and secondary education. They measure
the response of capital expenditures and spending on other local services to state-imposed
constraints using the experience of Michigan districts following the implementation of
Proposition A. In 1993, Californians soundly defeated a ballot initiative to establish
school vouchers. Brunner, et al. test the hypothesis that families in high-quality
districts defeated the initiative to preserve the housing price premium that is
capitalized into the value of their homes. Although many reform proposals call for greater
spending on education, it is not clear dollars will find their way into the classroom or
to their most effective use. Evans et al. considers the effect of three decades of
court-mandated school reform on the allocation of resources within schools and school
districts.
| Moderator: |
Sheila E. Murray,
University of Kentucky and Northwestern University
|
Presenters: |
Julie Berry Cullen,
University of Michigan; and Susanna Loeb, University of California Davis - Fiscal
Substitution in the Context of School Finance Reform
Eric J. Brunner, San Diego State University; Jon Sonstelie,
University of California Santa Barbara; and Mark Thayer, San Diego State University
- Capitalization and the Voucher: An Analysis of Precinct Returns from California's
Proposition 174
Thomas S. Dee, Swarthmore College; William N. Evans,
University of Maryland; Sheila E. Murray; and Robert M. Schwab, University
of Maryland - The Effect of Court-Mandated School Finance Reform on the Allocation of
Education Resources
|
| Discussants: |
Dan Aaronson,
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Timothy J. Goodspeed, Hunter College of the City University of
New York
A. Abigail Payne, University of Illinois |
The Effectiveness of State and Local Tax
Incentives
This session includes four papers investigating aspects of the effectiveness of
state and local tax incentives. While numerous economic development incentives have been
implemented over the past 30 years, there has been too little careful examination of the
effectiveness of these incentives in achieving stated policy goals. This session aims to
remedy that situation, bringing together state, local, and regional studies of the
experience with economic development incentives. Effectiveness of incentive policies is
judged in several ways in these papers, including measurable impacts on labor markets and
plant location. In addition, the session includes papers that examine whether economic
development incentives are economically worthwhile.
| Moderator: |
John E. Anderson,
Barents Group LLC, and University of Nebraska - Lincoln
|
Presenters: |
John E. Anderson, and Robert
Wassmer, California State University-Sacramento - Are Local Economic Development
Incentives Effective in an Urban Area?
Jonathan C. Rork, University of New Hampshire - Getting What You
Pay For: The Case of Southern Economic Development
Dagney Faulk, Georgia State University - An Analysis of the
Participation Decision and Employment Impact of State Employment Tax Credits
Ian Mead, Boston College and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston -
The Effects of State and Local Tax Policies on New Plant Location for Firms in Four
High-Technology Industries
|
| Discussant: |
Mary Beth Walker, Georgia State University |
Program Committee
Daphne A. Kenyon, Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy and
Simmons College, Chair
Robert D. Ebel, Executive Director, National Tax Association, ex officio
Michael E. Bell, MEB Associates, Inc.
Howard Chernick, Hunter College, City University of New York
Julia Lynn Coronado, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Stacy Dickert-Conlin, Maxwell School, Syracuse University
Thomas A. Downes, Tufts University
James R. Eads, Ernst & Young, LLP, Atlanta
Ronald Fisher, Michigan State University
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, American Enterprise Institute
Harold M. Hochman, Lafayette College
Ranjana Madhusudhan, New Jersey Department of Treasury
Jane Malme, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Georgia State University
Sheila E. Murray, University of Kentucky and Northwestern University
James R. Nunns, U.S. Department of Treasury
William Oakland, Tulane University
George A. Plesko, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Terrell E. Schroeder, Marvin F. Poer & Company
Amy Ellen Schwartz, Wagner School, New York University
David L. Sjoquist, Georgia State University
Joan Youngman, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Dennis Zimmerman, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress
Local Arrangements
Committee
Roy W. Bahl, Georgia State University
Billy D. Cook, Institute for Professionals in Taxation
Terrell E. Schroeder, Marvin F. Poer & Company
David L. Sjoquist, Georgia State University
|