Optimal fiscal policy for a state or local government |
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Authors: | Richard Arnott Ronald E Grieson |
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Institution: | Department of Economics Queen''s University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada;Department of Economics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA |
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Abstract: | State and local government services are enjoyed by, and taxes borne by, two groups, residents and non-residents. This paper addresses the question: if state and local governments maximize their residents' welfare, and cannot distinguish between individual residents and non-residents but know the aggregate characteristics of the two groups, what set of taxes (subsidies) and public goods should they choose? Some of the results obtained are: (i) even when all commodities are taxable and equity is ignored, the existence of non-resident consumption makes uniform taxation non-optimal; (ii) in some cases, whether a commodity should be taxed or subsidized is independent of its own-price elasticity; (iii) central cities may be subsidized by suburban residents; and (iv) the ability of state and local governments to redistribute is inversely proportional to the openness of the economy. |
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