1. |
- Aronsson, Thomas, 1963-, et al.
(author)
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Optimal taxation and risk-sharing arrangements in an economic federation
- 2003
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In: Oxford Economic Papers. - : Oxford University Press. - 0030-7653 .- 1464-3812. ; 55:1, s. 104-120
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper analyzes optimal taxation and risk‐sharing arrangements in an economy with two levels of government. Both levels provide public goods and finance their expenditures via labor income taxation, where the tax base is responsive to the private agents' labor supply decisions. The localities are assumed to experience different random productivity shocks, meaning that the private labor supply decision as well as the choices of income tax rates are carried out under uncertainty. Part of the central government's decision problem is then to provide tax revenue sharing between the local governments. The optimal degree of revenue sharing depends on whether or not the localities/regions differ with respect to labor supply incentives.
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2. |
- Bastani, Spencer, et al.
(author)
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How should commodities be taxed? : A counter-argument to the recommendation in the Mirrlees Review
- 2015
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In: Oxford Economic Papers. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0030-7653 .- 1464-3812. ; 67:2, s. 455-478
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Mirrlees Review recommends that commodity taxation should in general be uniform, but with some goods consumed in conjunction with labour supply (such as child care) left untaxed. This article examines the validity of this claim in an optimal income tax framework. Contrary to the recommendation of the review, our theoretical results imply that even if all goods other than the good needed for working are separable from leisure, the optimal tax on these goods should not be uniform. Instead, commodity taxes should discourage consumption of goods with large expenditure elasticities. Our results imply that the optimal commodity tax system is dependent on the expenditure side of the government. For instance, if the government fully subsidizes the cost of the good needed for working, then commodity taxation is uniform under the standard separability assumption. Calibration exercises suggest that these results can be quantitatively important.
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3. |
- Borowiecki, Karol Jan
(author)
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Historical origins of cultural supply in Italy
- 2015
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In: Oxford Economic Papers. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1464-3812 .- 0030-7653. ; 67:3, s. 781-805
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- I investigate the consequences of long-run persistence of a society's preferences for cultural goods. Historical cultural activity is approximated with the frequency of births of music composers during the Renaissance and is linked with contemporary measures of cultural activity in Italian provinces. Areas with a 1% higher number of composer births nowadays show an up to 0.29% higher supply of classical concerts and 0.16% more opera performances. Classical concerts and opera performances have also rather bigger audiences and obtain greater revenues in provinces that have been culturally active in the past. Today, those provinces also exhibit a somewhat lower supply of other forms of entertainment (e.g., sport events), thereby implying a tantalizing divergence in societies' cultural preferences that is attributable to events rooted in the past. It is also shown that the geography of composer births is remarkably persistent over a period of seven centuries.
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4. |
- Carlsson, Fredrik, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Do people exaggerate how happy they are? Using a promise to induce truth-telling
- 2018
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In: Oxford Economic Papers. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0030-7653 .- 1464-3812. ; 70:3, s. 784-798
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We investigate a novel approach to reduce measurement error in subjective well-being (SWB) data. Using a between-subject design, half of the subjects are asked to promise to answer the survey questions truthfully to make them commit to truth-telling. We find a statistically significant difference between mean stated well-being between the two samples (with and without a promise). People are consistently found to exaggerate their happiness and for several different aspects of life, without a promise. We then investigate to what extent the differences in stated well-being also affect the inference from regressions models on the determinants of SWB. The effect on the covariates are only weakly statistically significant and only for a few variables, if we compare the samples with and without the promise. Thus, this means that the policy implications based on an SWB study only marginally depends on whether we include a truth-telling question or not.
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5. |
- Carlsson, Fredrik, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Funding a new bridge in rural Vietnam:a field experiment on social influence and default contributions
- 2015
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In: Oxford Economic Papers. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0030-7653 .- 1464-3812. ; 67:4, s. 987-1014
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Public goods provision is essential for economic development. Yet there is limited evidence regarding contributions to local public goods in developing countries. This article analyses a field experiment where all 200 households in a village in rural Vietnam make real contributions to a public good that is very important for them in daily life—a bridge. We study the role of social influence (that people may be more willing to co-operate if others do) and the effects of the default alternative in the choice situation. We find significant and substantial (in the order of magnitude of 15–25%) effects of both social influence and defaults but only when providing low reference or default contributions.
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6. |
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7. |
- Carlsson, Fredrik, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Measuring trust in institutions
- 2024
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In: Oxford Economic Papers-New Series. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0030-7653. ; 76:1, s. 22-40
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Trust in institutions is important for economic prosperity. We present results from a field study where we compare stated trust in institutions in general, stated trust in employees at institutions, and amount sent to employees at institutions using a trust game. Including more than 250 entrepreneurs in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, we examine levels of trust towards entrepreneurship development agency, district administration, tax authority, and electric utility. There is a positive and sizeable significant correlation between stated trust and trust game. Furthermore, we find that generalized trust is weakly correlated with trust in specific institutions both compared with stated trust, and trust game. Given the large heterogeneity in levels of trust to specific institutions, we argue it is important to elicit institution-specific levels of trust.
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8. |
- Carlsson, Mikael, et al.
(author)
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Product Market Imperfections and Employment Dynamics
- 2013
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In: Oxford Economic Papers. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0030-7653 .- 1464-3812. ; 65:2, s. 447-470
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- How important is imperfect competition in the product market for employment dynamics? To investigate this, we formulate a model of employment adjustment with search frictions, vacancy costs, hiring costs, and imperfect competition in the product market. From this model, we derive a structural equation for employment that we estimate on firm-level data. We find that product market demand shocks have significant and quantitatively large effects on employment. This supports a model with imperfect competition in the product market. We find no evidence that the level of unemployment in the local labour market has a direct effect on job creation in existing firms. In some specifications, we find evidence of congestion effects, i.e., that hiring is slowed down if there are many vacancies in the local labour market.
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9. |
- Coller, Maribeth, et al.
(author)
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Latent process heterogeneity in discounting behavior
- 2012
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In: Oxford Economic Papers. - : Oxford University Press. - 0030-7653 .- 1464-3812. ; 64:2, s. 375-391
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We show that observed choices in discounting experiments are consistent with roughly one-half of the subjects using exponential discounting and one-half using quasi-hyperbolic discounting. We characterize the latent data generating process using a mixture model which allows different subjects to behave consistently with each model. Our results have substantive implications for the assumptions made about discounting behavior, and also have significant methodological implications for the manner in which we evaluate alternative models when there may be complementary data generating processes.
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10. |
- Dannenberg, Astrid
(author)
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Non-binding agreements in public goods experiments
- 2016
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In: Oxford Economic Papers-New Series. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0030-7653. ; 68:1, s. 279-300
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article presents experimental evidence on the effects of non-binding agreements on co-operation in public goods games. In particular, it compares first-best agreements that require full co-operation by all players and second-best agreements that require only a minimum contribution level rather than full co-operation. The results show that when there is no punishment opportunity, second-best agreements work better than first-best agreements because they are more likely to be formed and kept. First-best agreements form at the beginning of the game, but non-compliant behaviour by some players causes co-operation to collapse. This result is reversed when there is a punishment opportunity. In this case, first-best agreements work better than second-best agreements as they allow groups to establish a common behavioural standard, deter violations, and achieve very high levels of co-operation.
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