Mehmet Serkan Tosun

Cross-Border Shopping and the Sales Tax: An Examination of Food Purchases in West Virginia

Abstract In this article we present new evidence of cross-border shopping in response to sales taxation. While several instructive studies provide estimates of the cross-border shopping effect, we utilize a unique opportunity to evaluate the effect of a large discrete change in sales tax policy. Using county level data on food sales and sales tax rates for West Virginia over the 1988-1991 period we estimate that for every one-percentage point increase in the county relative price ratio due to the sales tax change, per capita food sales decreased by about 1.38 percent. Our estimates indicate that food sales fell in West Virginia border counties by about eight percent as a result of the imposition of the six percent sales tax on food at the beginning of 1990.

Economic growth and tax components: an analysis of tax changes in OECD

The paper examines empirically the changes in the tax mix of the OECD countries in response to economic growth from 1980 to 1999. It is found that economic growth, measured by GDP per capita, has had a significant effect on the tax mix of the OECD countries. Analysis reveals that different taxes respond differently to the growth of GDP per capita. It is shown that while the shares of personal and property taxes have responded positively to economic growth, shares of the payroll and goods and services taxes have shown a relative decline.

Population aging and economic growth: political economy and open economy effects

Abstract This paper addresses population aging in the context of both open economy and endogenous fiscal policy response. The analysis explores the role of these modeling features and discusses how this framework differs from closed economy and other open economy models.

The Impact of Local Decentralization on Economic Growth: Evidence from U.S. Counties

We analyze the impact of fiscal decentralization on U.S. county population, employment, and real income growth. Our findings suggest that government organization matters for local economic growth, but that the impacts vary by government unit and by economic indicator. We find that single-purpose governments per square mile have a positive impact on metropolitan population and employment growth, but no significant impact on nonmetropolitan counties. In contrast, the fragmentation of general-purpose governments per capita has a negative impact on employment and population growth in nonmetropolitan counties. Our results suggest that local government decentralization matters differently for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties.

Political Economy of Immigration in Germany: Attitudes and Citizenship Aspirations

This paper examines resident foreigners’ interest in German citizenship. We use a unique data set from a survey of foreign residents in the German states to study the roles played by factors such as attitudes towards foreigners and political interest of foreigners. We find that negative attitudes towards foreigners and generational conflict within foreigner families are significant negative factors. While interest in political participation is among the important positive factors, hostile attitudes, lack of voting rights, or uncertainty about staying in Germany mainly discourage foreigners who actively participate in the labor market, have more years of schooling, and are younger.

Global Aging and Fiscal Policy with International Labor Mobility: A Political Economy Perspective

This paper uses an overlapping generations model with international labor mobility and a politically responsive fiscal policy to examine aging in developed and developing regions. Migrant workers change the political structure composed of young and elderly voters in both labor-receiving and labor-sending countries. Numerical simulations show that the developed region benefits more from international labor mobility through the contribution of migrant workers as laborers, savers, and voters. The developing region experiences significant growth in all specifications but benefit more under international capital mobility. Restricting political participation of migrant workers in the developed region produces inferior growth results.

Property Value Assessment Growth Limits, Tax Base Erosion and Regional In-Migration

In 1994, a limit on the growth of property values for tax purposes was imposed in Michigan. One consequence of the newly imposed assessment growth cap was an emerging differential in tax prices between potential new property owners and long-time property owners. The purpose this article is to examine the impact of this growing tax price differential on migration patterns. Using county level data on migration activity over the 1994-2006 period, the authors present evidence that differential tax prices resulting from the assessment growth cap have reduced in-migration.

Decentralization, Economic Development, and Growth in Turkish Provinces

There have been important developments in the decentralization of the government structure in Turkey since the early 1980s. This paper examines economic development and growth in Turkish provinces. Although there is a rich literature on the economic effects of government decentralization from both developed and developing countries, these effects have not been examined widely in the context of Turkish local governments. The authors first describe changes since the early 1980s and recent reform efforts. They then provide an empirical analysis of the effects of decentralization in Turkish provinces using cross-sectional and panel data approaches. The panel dataset consists of 67 provinces from 1976 to 2001. The analysis examines whether variations in local decentralization across these provinces and across time have had a significant impact on economic development and growth in those provinces. The findings suggest a weak negative economic effect of decentralization through a number of municipalities per capita. However, the findings do not show any significant impact from the creation of new provinces by separation from the existing ones.

Centralization, Decentralization, and Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has one of the most centralized government structures in the world. In this paper, we examine the causes of decentralization in the region by conducting a cross-country regression analysis. We use panel data for a set of MENA countries to understand the factors behind heavy centralization. Our findings show that external conflicts constitute a major roadblock to decentralization in the region.

The tax structure and trade liberalization of the middle east and north africa region

There has been an unprecedented trade liberalization which started in the mid- 1980s in a wide spectrum of developing countries. In the same period, there have also been considerable changes in the tax structures of countries. This paper uses panel data on 65 countries, including 16 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, for the period 1980–1997 to examine how tax structures responded to trade liberalization. It is found that, unlike other non-OECD countries, the MENA countries did not increase their reliance on domestic consumption taxes in response to trade liberalization. Trade liberalization did not seem to have a strong impact on major revenue sources of the MENA countries.