Group Insurance is a fairly recent innovation and as such has commanded relatively little public attention as yet. Nevertheless, its rapid growth has assured for it no minor role in industrial relations and in the welfare of the nation's wage-earning class. The benefits of ordinary insurance have long been recognized. Group protection, affording; similar benefits to those who mast need them, deserves any publicity which is has received or may receive in the future. This thesis is intended to cast some light on this important element of our present industrial age. For much of the material here included, I am indebted to those insurance companies, too numerous to mention. from whom I sought information. In its preparation, I have found the pen of Professor Michell to be indeed mighty and his criticisms and suggestions most helpful. / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

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This dissertation examines issues on taxation, fiscal policy, and governance in developing countries. The three chapters of the dissertation are summarized as follows:In the first chapter, we argue that models of advanced countries are often applied to developing countries with little consideration for differences in economic structures. Deviating from this norm, we examine fiscal policy effects in a simple DSGE model structured after a developing economy with credit constraints. Building a model akin to that of a developing economy largely dominated by an agriculture sector, we allow for agents that are credit constrained and noncredit-constrained . First, we observe and provide new evidence that allowing for household heterogeneity significantly alters how fiscal policy affects consumption, output, and labor in developing countries when compared to standard representative agent models. Second, we find that shocks are more subdued in the two agent model than the representative agent model when simulated with data for developing countries.For the second chapter, we contribute to the literature on tax models and the field of public economics by examining the fiscal policy effects of a small developing country if it adopts a comprehensive progressive tax structure.We analyze this under the context where a large proportion of households are credit constrained. We discover that under a progressive tax structure, the government finances its purchases by increasing taxes for those with access to financial markets while reducing taxes of households that are credit-constrained suggesting evidence of income redistribution. Finally, we find that macroeconomic analyses are considerably different when the tax structure is progressive compared to flat thereby having several policy implications for developing countries.Lastly, in the third chapter, we use annual aggregate data for 58 developing countries covering the period 2000-2015 to investigate whether alternative elements of governance have differing effects on the relationship between total public debt and private investment. First, results suggest that total public debt is considerably lower in countries with good governance while private investment thrives in countries with favorable political regimes. Second, there is evidence of crowding out(total public debt displaces private investment) with the extent of crowding out largely related to governance. Government effectiveness and corruption are the governance in-dicators that appear to have the greatest impact on investment. Corruption is found to be the most important aspect of governance in terms of the relationship between total public debt and private investment: an increase in total public debt has the greatest effect on reducing private investment in countries with low levels of corruption

The aim of this dissertation is to explore a number of issues in intergovernmental fiscal relationships in the United States. Three independent essays in the dissertation focus on three different issues of interest in public finance: the response of school districts and county governments to changes in state government grant allocations; political determinants of presidential disaster declarations; and the crowding out of federal transfers to states by private charitable donations with special reference to the proportion of federal welfare grants to all 50 U.S. states over the period 2005 - 2013. Results in the first essay show that decreases in real per capita state grants cause statistically significant increases in per capita property taxes in Florida counties and school districts. However, the effect is stronger for counties as compared to the school districts. Another major result from this study is that property taxes, a major funding source for public education, decrease when the proportion of the young in total population increases. This could have important consequences for public education funding. Results from the second essay show that during the sample period, from 2000 to 2013, the average number of days for presidential disaster declarations was lower when the president is a Republican and the governor is a Democrat. The longest time delay in presidential disaster declarations occurred when the president is a Democrat and the governor is a Republican. The study also provides evidence that the higher the incumbent president’s vote share, the shorter is the delay in presidential disaster declarations. Additionally, it is found that the more salient the disaster event is (as measured by the number of newspaper articles per day), the shorter it takes for presidents to declare major disasters. The third essay provides evidence that state-level charitable contributions correlate significantly with federal public welfare grants to states. An increase in charitable contributions leads to a decrease in the proportion of federal grants allocated to public welfare, controlling for political and demographic factors. The study also shows that the level of crowding out that occurs is significantly higher than that predicted by the previous literature on the subject.

This paper analyzes whether the decreasing progressivity of the US Federal Tax system appear to affect taxpayer satisfaction. I use data from the publicly available General Social Survey and combine them with average tax rates from Piketty and Saez (2007). In this study, two distinct questions are addressed: (1) Is a taxpayer’s belief that his or her own federal income tax is too high affected by their actual average tax rates? (2) Is a taxpayer’s belief that his or her own federal income tax is too high affected by the progressivity of the federal income tax? The results show that taxpayer dissatisfaction is consistently positively correlated to average taxes and progressivity. Upon dividing up our respondents to income quintiles, my results reveal two interesting findings: (1) the magnitude of dissatisfaction for a given increase in average taxes follows a U shaped pattern across the income quintiles, where taxpayers in the third quintile were most responsive to fluctuations in tax rates, (2) the magnitude and strength of the correlation between the various progressivity variables and taxpayer dissatisfaction was consistent for all income quintiles, implying that taxpayers are not recognizing changes in progressivity. These findings disclaim the homo economicus assumption. Further, after dividing our respondents based on their educational attainment, I find that taxpayers with higher levels of education are more responsive to changes in tax rates.

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This is a review of recent literature on best practices for implementing inclusionary zoning. Existing policies for creating affordable housing in the United States are briefly discussed. Common components of inclusionary zoning ordinances are then detailed, and legal and economic considerations are explained. Finally, the success of inclusionary zoning, its application to large cities, and expert policy recommendations are addressed, before concluding.

This thesis concerns the economic dimensions of second language knowledge and acquisition and the economic implications of language policies. The value of the ability to speak and understand a second language depends on the extent to which it enlarges one's communicative sphere which, in turn, depends on the language abilities of others. This implies that second language acquisition decisions are associated with strategic considerations and spillover effects. Consequently, the equilibrium distribution of language skills may not be socially efficient and policy remedies may be called for. The first essay of the thesis investigates the relationship between earnings, second language knowledge and the distribution of language skills in local labour markets in Canada using census data. We estimate the elasticity of local language complementarity in earnings: a parameter that measures the importance of the linguistic environment in the earnings of the individual as well as the importance of language in the economy generally. The second essay addresses the efficiency of second language acquisition decisions in a theoretical model where bilingualism is rewarded with a higher wage for two reasons. First, language skills constitute a form of human capital in the sense that a worker's productivity is positively related to the proportion of the population with whom she shares a language. Second, language skills serve as a signal of productivity to employers. In general, the private and social benefits of bilingualism do not align due to counteracting network and signalling welfare effects. The third essay concerns the role of language policy in improving social outcomes. A tax-subsidy system is considered under various assumptions about the ability of the government or planner to discriminate between individuals and groups. A Pareto improvement is possible if the government can condition the tax-subsidy system on language acquisition costs but not otherwise. The fourth essay considers the optimal provision of public services when individuals' effective consumption of the services depends on their proficiency in the language they are provided in. The planner faces a trade-off between compensating minority language speakers for their lower wages and encouraging their integration by rewarding higher levels of dominant language proficiency. / Thesis (Ph.D, Economics) -- Queen's University, 2013-06-06 12:06:34.747