Behavioral Responses to Taxation

这个项目的目标是提高我们对税收行为反应的理解。 最终目标是通过更好地了解人们对特定类型税收变化的反应来制定更好的税收政策。该奖项将资助两个不同的项目。 第一个考虑股息税对公司行为的影响。 2003年，公司股息的最高联邦税率大幅下降。 调查人员将研究税率的下降如何改变公司关于是否发放股息和股息规模的决定。 在以前的工作中，研究人员和一位合著者已经表明，2003年的变化导致了股息的显着增加，以及发放股息的公司数量的显着增加。 该奖项将资助旨在确定所有权构成和股息行为之间关系的额外工作。 高管和机构持股比例高的公司与小投资者众多的公司的反应是否不同？第二个项目考虑了汽车购买者如何应对两种不同税收的变化：销售税（在购买汽车时支付）和消费税（在车主拥有汽车的几年内征收，并取决于估计的二手车价值）。 对州一级综合数据的初步研究表明，当销售税增加时，新车购买量下降，但当消费税增加时，新车购买量不会改变。 该项目将使用新车销售的详细数据来确定是否真的如此。 PI还计划开发一种经济理论，以确定是否存在任何社会最佳使用的“隐藏”税收，这些税收不会以显著的方式影响个人行为，因为它们没有被很好地理解。

The goal of this project is to improve our understanding of behavioral responses to taxation. The ultimate aim is to develop better tax policies using a better understanding of how people respond to specific kinds of tax changes.This award will fund two distinct projects. The first considers the effects of dividend taxation on firm behavior. In 2003, the maximum federal tax rate on corporate dividends substantially decreased. The investigator will examine how this drop in the tax rate changed the decisions made by corporations about whether to grant dividends and the size of such dividends. In previous work, the investigator and a co-author have shown that the 2003 changes led to a marked increase in dividends and a marked increase in the number of firms granting dividends. This award will fund additional work designed to determine the relationship between ownership composition and dividend behavior. Did firms with high levels of executive and institutional ownership respond differently than firms with large numbers of small investors?The second project considers how car buyers respond to changes in two different kinds of taxes: sales taxes (which are paid at the time a car is purchased), and excise taxes (which are levied on car owners during their years of ownership and depend on the estimated used-car value). A preliminary study of state-level aggregate data suggests that new car purchases fall when sales taxes increase, but do not change when excise taxes increase. This project will use detailed data on new car sales to determine whether this is really the case. The PI also plans to develop an economic theory of whether or not there is any socially optimal use of "hidden" taxes, taxes that do not affect individual behavior in significant ways because they are not well understood.