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Fiscal Federalism and Tax Effort in the U.S. States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Sean Nicholson-Crotty
Sean Nicholson-Crotty*
Affiliation:
University of Missouri
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Abstract

Scholars have long been interested in the politics of taxation in the U.S. states. Research in this area has not, however, sufficiently explored the impact of fiscal federalism on state-level taxing decisions. Drawing on theoretical models of fiscal choice, this study develops the expectation that, under certain conditions, federal grants-in-aid exert significant downward pressure on state-level tax effort. I test that assertion in an analysis of tax effort in the U.S. states between 1971 and 1996.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Summer 2008 , pp. 109 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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