James M. Poterba – författare

The nine papers in this volume exploit the substantial variation in U.S. tax policy during the last two decades to investigate how taxes affect a range of household behaviour, including labour-force participation, saving behaviour, choice of health insurance plan, choice of child care arrangements, portfolio choice, and tax evasion. They also present analytical results on the effects of different types of tax policy.

Governments and corporations may contribute, but around the world household saving is the biggest factor in national saving. To increase understanding of why saving rates differ across countries, this volume provides analyses of patterns of household saving behaviour in Canada, Italy, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each of the six chapters examines micro data sets of household saving within a particular country and summarizes statistics on patterns of saving by age, income and other demographic factors. The authors provide age-earning profiles and analyses of the accumulation of wealth over the lifetime which allows comparisons between earning, consumption and saving in the six countries. Designed as a companion to Public Policies and Household Saving (1994), which addresses saving policies in the G-7 nations, this volume offers detailed descriptions of saving behaviour in all G-7 nations except France.

The unprecedented rise and persistence of large-scale budget deficits in many developed and developing nations during the past three decades has caused great concern. The widespread presence of such deficits has proved difficult to explain. Their emergence in otherwise diverse nations defies particularistic explanations aimed at internal economic developments within a specific country. This work shifts emphasis away from narrow economic factors to more broadly defined political and institutional factors that affect government policy and national debt. The collection brings together theoretical models, empirical evidence and a series of case studies to analyze the effect of political institutions, fiscal regulations, and policy decisions on accumulating deficits. It provides an overview of the political and economic issues involved and highlights the role of budgetary institutions in the formation of budget deficits.

Policy makers often call for increased spending on infrastructure, which can encompass a broad range of investments, from roads and bridges to digital networks that will expand access to high-speed broadband. Some point to the near-term macroeconomic benefits, such as job creation, associated with infrastructure spending; others point to the long-term effects of such spending on productivity and economic growth. Economic Analysis and Infrastructure Investment explores the links between infrastructure investment and economic outcomes, analyzing key economic issues in the funding and management of infrastructure projects. It includes new research on the short-run stimulus effects of infrastructure spending, develops new estimates of the stock of US infrastructure capital, and explores incentive aspects of public-private partnerships with particular attention to their allocation of risk. The volume provides a reference for researchers seeking to study infrastructure issues and for policymakers tasked with determining the appropriate level and allocation of infrastructure spending.