Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 26

There is no question that the US is facing significant fiscal challenges. Tax Policy and the Economy research papers make valuable contributions to our understanding of the economic effects of alternative approaches. The papers collected in Volume 26 include a study of an important determinant of the labor supply effects of Social Security; an examination of the budgetary and economic impact of changing how employer health insurance is treated in the tax code; an analysis of how US investment in Europe might be impacted by proposed corporate tax reform in the European Union; a look at the term “tax expenditures,” often used to describe governmental policies that show as reduction in taxes rather than as an increase in spending. The final paper in the volume shows how uncertainty about the restoration of US fiscal balance imposes additional efficiency costs on the economy in consumption, saving, labor supply and portfolio decisions, and how it reduces individual welfare.