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This thesis studies the implications of tax and transfer policy on income and employment, with emphasis on the low end of the income distribution. It also compares the labor market outcomes of recent veterans to those of veterans who served prior to 2001, when military utilization rates were much lower. The first chapter observes that many overlapping income support programs exist in the United States, each with the goal of transferring resources to low income individuals with minimal employment disincentives. Each of the programs considered addresses this tension in a different way, potentially creating differences in the degree to which labor supply adjusts in response to program changes. I separately and simultaneously estimate labor supply elasticities associated with the income support programs in the context of a discrete choice model. The differences in elasticities I document across programs can inform both policy and optimal taxation theory. In the second chapter I reassess whether the optimal income tax program has features akin to an Earned Income Tax Credit or a Negative Income Tax shape at the low end of the income distribution, in the presence of unemployment and wage responses to taxation. I derive a sufficient statistics optimal tax formula in a general model incorporating unemployment and endogenous wages. I then estimate the parameters using policy variation in tax liabilities stemming from the U.S. tax and transfer system. Using the empirical estimates, I implement the sufficient statistics formula and show that the optimal tax at the bottom has features that resemble those of a a Negative Income Tax relative to the case where unemployment and wage responses are not taken into account. In the third chapter, I compare labor market outcomes of veterans with post-2001 service time to those of similar veterans whose service did not extend past 2001. Veterans who served post-2001 are at a higher risk of long tours of duty, many of whom return with mental or physical disability. I find that veterans with post-2001 service are underemployed; conditional on employment however, veterans with post-2001 service earn at least as much, relative to veterans without post-2001 service.

Thesis. 1975. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Asim K. Dasgupta. / Ph.D.

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In recent months, the Basic Income Grant proposal has generated an overwhelming response in Namibia, and the launch of the Basic Income Grant Coalition has added further public debate. This resource book is compiled in order to inform policy makers and civil society role players about the background and the details of the proposal for a Basic Income Grant in Namibia. In addition, it provides the results of research of the social, economic and financial implications of a BIG in Namibia. The first section of the book documents the launch of the Basic Income Grant Coalition. The Council of Churches, the National Union of Namibian Workers, the National NGO Forum, the Namibian Network of AIDS Service Organisations, the Legal Assistance Centre, and the Labour, Resource and Research Institute committed themselves to the common platform on April 27th 2005. The platform of the coalition as well as the speeches at the launch of Bishop Dr. Z. Kameeta (Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) and Vice President of the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN)), Mr. P. Naholo, Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), and Mr. S. Tjaronda, Chairperson of the Namibian NGO Forum (NANGOF), are published in this first section. This resource book is compiled in order to inform policy makers and civil society role players about the background and the details of the proposal for a Basic Income Grant in Namibia. The second section explains the underlying concept of the Basic Income Grant. Crucial questions of understanding and clarification are addressed in order to form the basis for an informed debate about the concept. The third section introduces the key passages of the findings and recommendations made by the Government appointed Namibia Tax Consortium (NAMTAX). In 2002 the tax consortium “found that by far the best method of addressing poverty and inequality would be a universal income grant [= Basic Income Grantf (NAMTAX, 2002:60). This research is crucial as it lays the foundation on the basis of which the churches, unions, NGOs and AIDS Service organisations have now formed the coalition to join hands with Government to see that this proposal can be implemented effectively. The fourth and fifth sections provide relevant results stemming from social and economic analysis. The fourth section by Dr. C. and Dr. D. Haarmann is based on a Microsimulation Model modelling the developmental impact of a Basic Income Grant on poverty and inequality. The fifth and final section by Prof. M. Samson and Ms. I. van Niekerk calculates the costs of the Basic Income Grant and its various financing options. Based on a comparative international Tax Effort Analysis, the affordability given Namibia’s current economic capacity is assessed. This section concludes by looking at likely second round effects on Namibia’s economy if a Basic Income Grant is to be introduced.

This thesis explores the economic issues associated with the payout phase where a defined contribution (DC) retirement arrangement is adopted. In particular, the role of annuities in providing a retirement income is examined as well as insurance they provide against retirement risks such as inflation, longevity and rate of return volatility. A comprehensive money’s worth calculation based on a Australian population cohort mortality table shows that overall, Australian nominal and inflation indexed life annuities provide relatively good value for money. Although relative to annuities sold in the US and the UK they do suffer from relatively high adverse selection costs, which could in turn reduce demand. In addition, the presence of a government provided safety net pension could also result in low demand for annuities. These two issues suggest that government intervention may be warranted to ensure retirees have access to affordable private insurance to protect their retirement benefit. This could take the form of mandating an annuity purchase at retirement. However, which annuity should be mandated is not well understood. This is an important question as there are many alternative annuity designs, each providing different degrees of retirement risk protection to an individual. This thesis uses numerical simulations to empirically analyse the costs and benefits of mandating alternative annuities from both an individual and government’s perspectives to determine optimal annuity design. A model is used to estimate the value of payouts over time from various types of annuities across a range of retirement benefits. A means tested safety net pension is assumed to exist. Two stochastic variables — inflation and the risky rate of return, are simultaneously used to show how the annuity payouts react to theses changes, highlighting the insurance features of various annuities. Consumer preferences for the various annuities are estimated based on tolerance to risk. The variable annuity dominates the utility rankings under two conditions: -- when the relative risk aversion is low and a safety net payment isn’t available, and when the relative risk aversion is high and a safety net payment is made. Otherwise the CPI indexed annuity has the highest ranking. Sensitivity analysis shows that the results presented here are robust to a number of alternative assumptions about the key variables.

Thesis (J.D.)--University of Chicago, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-199). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of computer usage on the demand for paper and paperboard products. A log-linear model is developed to analyze the effect of computer usage on the demand for four categories of paper, newsprint, printing/writing paper, packaging paper and household/sanitary paper. The analysis is divided into two parts. The first part is US monthly analysis. We create computer number index as a measurement for computer usage. Monthly data (from Jan 1992 to Jun 2005) are collected to estimate the effect for four categories of paper. The monthly estimation results support the hypothesis that the increasing usage of computer has a significantly negative effect on the demand for printing/writing paper, and a significantly positive effect on the demand for packaging paper. But it doesn't provide enough evidence for the effect on the demand for newsprint. The second part is the yearly analysis on 16 main countries, which constitute the major demand for paper/paperboard products and are countries with widespread usage of computer. Using the yearly data from 1961 to 2002 and applying fixone model, we find that computer usage has a significantly positive effect on demand for packaging paper. The small difference in US monthly analysis and 16 countries yearly analysis may arise from the different measures in computer usage, prices of paper/paperboard products, and income.

Abstract Education good is not only a kind of non-pure public good, but also has the character of external benefit. Government can make up for the market failure by intervene the education market, and sometimes it provides the subsidy for the education through public policies. This paper uses the educational vouchers to provide education subsidies in views of Friedman¡¦s ideal which manifests the goal of the freedom education market. Thus, parents have the chance to choose private schools for their children. The third chapter tries to establish the mixed-regime education model, and study the effects of tax-financing, education quality and the right of choosing schools when the government carries out the educational voucher system under the rule of majority voting. From this model, we find that the practice of educational voucher system has the influence on the income redistribution, and the voucher amounts would influence the education quality which children obtain. By the way, considering the factor of transaction efficiency, we study how the voucher amounts influence the tax-financing and study how to reduce the tax rates under the vouchers system. In this paper, we use the way of parameter simulation to study how the vouchers system influences the parent¡¦s choice on education in the different income distribution structure. In the forth chapter, we aim for the government behavior to the effects of education policies. The government¡¦s objective function includes both the weight of social welfare factor and self-interest of maximizing budget, so we study how the poor groups and rich groups independently choose the public education expenditure and educational vouchers. The fifth chapter is conclusion and offers the study direction in the future.