NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

Tax Structure and Public Sector Growth

Daniel R. Feenberg, Harvey S. Rosen

NBER Working Paper No. 2020 (Also Reprint No. r0936)*
Issued in October 1987
NBER Program(s):   PE

It has been hypothesized that a jurisdiction's tax structure exerts an independent effect upon the growth of its public sector. We test this hypothesis by examining the relationship between the growth of state general expenditure and the elasticity of tax revenues with respect to income. The work takes advantage of a very careful set of income elasticities for the personal income and sales tax systems for each state, for every year from 1978 to 1983. The main conclusion is that the data do not support the notion that the form of the tax structure exerts an independent effect on public sector growth.

*Published: Feenberg, Daniel R. and Harvey S. Rosen. "Tax Structure and Public Sector Growth," Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 32, No. 1, Feb. 1987, pp. 185-201 .

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