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22. Congress Should Account for the Excess Burden of Taxation
- Author:
- Christopher J. Conover
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- A well-established principle of public finance holds that taxes impose costs on society beyond the amount of revenue government collects. Estimates vary depending on the type of tax, but the “marginal excess burden” of federal taxes most likely ranges from 14 to 52 cents per dollar of tax revenue, averaging about 44 cents for all federal taxes.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States
23. Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors: 2010
- Author:
- Chris Edwards
- Publication Date:
- 09-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- State governments have had to make tough budget choices in recent years. Tax revenues have stagnated as a result of the poor economy, and that has prompted governors to take a variety of fiscal actions to close large budget gaps. Some governors have cut spending to balance their budgets, while others have pursued large tax increases.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, and Monetary Policy
- Political Geography:
- America
24. Has the Fed Been a Failure?
- Author:
- George A. Selgin, Lawrence H. White, and William D. Lastrapes
- Publication Date:
- 11-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- As the one-hundredth anniversary of the 1913 Federal Reserve Act approaches, we assess whether the nation's experiment with the Federal Reserve has been a success or a failure. Drawing on a wide range of recent empirical research, we find the following: (1) The Fed's full history (1914 to present) has been characterized by more rather than fewer symptoms of monetary and macroeconomic instability than the decades leading to the Fed's establishment. (2) While the Fed's performance has undoubtedly improved since World War II, even its postwar performance has not clearly surpassed that of its undoubtedly flawed predecessor, the National Banking system, before World War I. (3) Some proposed alternative arrangements might plausibly do better than the Fed as presently constituted. We conclude that the need for a systematic exploration of alternatives to the established monetary system is as pressing today as it was a century ago.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Government, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States
25. Do Vouchers and Tax Credits Increase Private School Regulation?
- Author:
- Andrew J. Coulson
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- School voucher and education tax credit programs have proliferated in the United States over the past two decades. Advocates have argued that they will enable families to become active consumers in a free and competitive education marketplace, but some fear that these programs may in fact bring with them a heavy regulatory burden that could stifle market forces. Until now, there has been no systematic, empirical investigation of that concern. The present paper aims to shed light on the issue by quantifying the regulations imposed on private schools both within and outside school choice programs, and then analyzing them with descriptive statistics and regression analyses. The results are tested for robustness to alternative ways of quantifying private school regulation, and to alternative regression models, and the question of causality is addressed. The study concludes that vouchers, but not tax credits, impose a substantial and statistically significant additional regulatory burden on participating private schools.
- Topic:
- Education, Government, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States
26. A Better Way to Generate and Use Comparative-Effectiveness Research
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- President Barack Obama, former U.S. Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and others propose a new government agency that would evaluate the relative effectiveness of medical treatments. The need for “comparative-effectiveness research” is great. Evidence suggests Americans spend $700 billion annually on medical care that provides no value. Yet patients, providers, and purchasers typically lack the necessary information to distinguish between high- and low-value services.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Health, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
27. Bright Lines and Bailouts: To Bail or Not To Bail, That Is the Question
- Author:
- Vern McKinley and Gary Gegenheimer
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- A financial-institution bailout involves government intervention through a transaction or forbearance targeted to a financial institution or group of financial institutions. The action is preemptive as the financial institution does not fail and go out of business, but remains a going concern, benefiting creditors, shareholders, or counterparties. In the absence of a bailout, the financial institution would either be forced to go through receivership or bankruptcy in the prescribed legal form, or have its role in financial intermediation disrupted.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Political Economy, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
28. Obamacare to Come: Seven Bad Ideas for Health Care Reform
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- President Obama has made it clear that reforming the American health care system will be one of his top priorities. In response, congressional leaders have promised to introduce legislation by this summer, and they hope for an initial vote in the Senate before the Labor Day recess.
- Topic:
- Government and Health
- Political Geography:
- United States
29. Halfway to Where? Answering the Key Questions of Health Care Reform
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Although neither the House nor the Senate passed a health care bill by President Obama's August deadline, various pieces of legislation have made it through committee, and they provide a concrete basis for analyzing what the proposed health care reform would and would not do. Looking at the various bills that are moving on Capitol Hill, we can determine the following: Contrary to the Obama administration's repeated assurances, millions of Americans who are happy with their current health insurance will not be able to keep it. As many as 89.5 million people may be dumped into a government-run plan. Some Americans may find themselves forced into a new insurance plan that no longer includes their current doctor. Americans will pay more than $820 billion in additional taxes over the next 10 years, and could see their insurance premiums rise as much as 95 percent. The current health care bills will increase the budget deficit by at least $239 billion over the next 10 years, and far more in the years beyond that. If the new health care entitlement were subject to the same 75-year actuarial standards as Social Security or Medicare, its unfunded liabilities would exceed $9.2 trillion. While the bills contain no direct provisions for rationing care, they nonetheless increase the likelihood of government rationing and interference with how doctors practice medicine. Contrary to assertions of some opponents, the bills contain no provision for euthanasia or mandatory end-of-life counseling. The bills' provisions on abortion coverage are far murkier.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, Human Welfare, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
30. Would a Stricter Fed Policy and Financial Regulation Have Averted the Financial Crisis?
- Author:
- Jagadeesh Gokhale and Peter Van Doren
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Many commentators have argued that if the Federal Reserve had followed a stricter monetary policy earlier this decade when the housing bubble was forming, and if Congress had not deregulated banking but had imposed tighter financial standards, the housing boom and bust—and the subsequent financial crisis and recession—would have been averted. In this paper, we investigate those claims and dispute them. We are skeptical that economists can detect bubbles in real time through technical means with any degree of unanimity. Even if they could, we doubt the Fed would have altered its policy in the early 21st century, and we suspect that political leaders would have exerted considerable pressure to maintain that policy. Concerning regulation, we find that the banking reform of the late 1990s had little effect on the housing boom and bust, and that the many reform ideas currently proposed would have done little or nothing to avert the crisis.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States