Tax policy debates--and reforms--depend heavily on estimates of how
alternative tax rules would affect behavior. Yet there is considerable
controversy about the key empirical links among tax rates, household
decisions, and revenue collections.
The nine papers in this volume exploit the substantial variation in U.S.
tax policy during the last two decades to investigate how taxes affect a
range of household behavior, including labor-force participation, saving
behavior, choice of health insurance plan, choice of child care
arrangements, portfolio choice, and tax evasion. They also present new
analytical results on the effects of different types of tax policy. All
of this research relies on household-level data--drawn either from
public-use tax return files or from large household-level surveys--to
explore various aspects of the relationship between taxes and household
behavior.
As debates about the effects of proposed tax reforms continue in the
1990s, this volume will be of interest to policy makers and scholars in
the field of public finance.