IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v41y2013i2p177-202.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Voter Ideology, Economic Factors, and State and Local Tax Progressivity

Author

Listed:
  • John M. Foster

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between voter ideology and the distribution of tax burdens across income groups using state and local data, aggregated at the state level, for 1995, 2002, and 2007. I find that average voter liberalism is positively related to subnational tax progressivity. However, the effects are economically insignificant. A state’s ethnic demographic context appears to be more important. The ethnic congruence between the poor and the nonpoor is positively related to progressivity and the effects are economically significant. The tension between ethnic groups, measured with an index of residential segregation, is inversely related to progressivity. The effects are larger in magnitude than those of average voter liberalism. It is possible that the ethnic demographic context reflects aspects of voter preferences that are not captured by measures of voter ideology.

Suggested Citation

  • John M. Foster, 2013. "Voter Ideology, Economic Factors, and State and Local Tax Progressivity," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(2), pages 177-202, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:41:y:2013:i:2:p:177-202
    DOI: 10.1177/1091142112467528
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1091142112467528
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1091142112467528?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Slemrod,Joel, 1997. "Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521587761, September.
    2. Fong, Christina M. & Luttmer, Erzo F.P., 2011. "Do fairness and race matter in generosity? Evidence from a nationally representative charity experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(5-6), pages 372-394, June.
    3. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413, September.
    4. Jason M. Fletcher & Matthew N. Murray, 2008. "What Factors Influence the Structure of the State Income Tax?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 36(4), pages 475-496, July.
    5. Howard Chernick, 1992. "A Model of the Distributional Incidence of State and Local Taxes," Public Finance Review, , vol. 20(4), pages 572-585, October.
    6. Hettich,Walter & Winer,Stanley L., 2005. "Democratic Choice and Taxation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521021807, September.
    7. Tresch, Richard W., 2014. "Public Finance," Elsevier Monographs, Elsevier, edition 3, number 9780124158344.
    8. Kelly D. Edmiston & Kenneth Spong, 2012. "Tax Incentives for Homeownership and the Provision of Local Public Services," Public Finance Review, , vol. 40(1), pages 116-144, January.
    9. Christine H. Roch & Michael Rushton, 2008. "Racial Context and Voting over Taxes," Public Finance Review, , vol. 36(5), pages 614-634, September.
    10. Brueckner, Jan K. & Saavedra, Luz A., 2001. "Do Local Governments Engage in Strategic Property-Tax Competition?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 54(2), pages 203-230, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Suárez-Varela, Marta & Martínez-Espiñeira, Roberto & González-Gómez, Francisco, 2015. "An analysis of the price escalation of non-linear water tariffs for domestic uses in Spain," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 82-93.
    2. John M. Foster & Jacob Fowles, 2018. "Ethnic Heterogeneity, Group Affinity, and State Higher Education Spending," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(1), pages 1-28, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jason M. Fletcher & Matthew N. Murray, 2008. "What Factors Influence the Structure of the State Income Tax?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 36(4), pages 475-496, July.
    2. Chirinko, Robert S. & Wilsom, Daniel J., 2010. "Can Lower Tax Rates Be Bought? Business Rent-Seeking and Tax Competition Among U.S. States," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(4), pages 967-993, December.
    3. Agostini, Claudio A. & Brown, Philip H. & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2010. "Neighbor effects in the provision of public goods in a young democracy: Evidence from China," IFPRI discussion papers 1027, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. John M. Foster & Jacob Fowles, 2018. "Ethnic Heterogeneity, Group Affinity, and State Higher Education Spending," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(1), pages 1-28, February.
    5. Chirinko, Robert S. & Wilson, Daniel J., 2017. "Tax competition among U.S. states: Racing to the bottom or riding on a seesaw?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 147-163.
    6. Carlsen, Fredrik & Langset, Bjorg & Rattso, Jorn, 2005. "The relationship between firm mobility and tax level: Empirical evidence of fiscal competition between local governments," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 273-288, September.
    7. Yu, Haowei & Zhou, You, 2021. "Highway Spending and Induced Vehicle Emissions: Evidence from the US states," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Ikuho Kochi & Raul Alberto Ponce Rodriguez, 2010. "Do Remittances Crowd Out The Government¡¯S Redistributive Policy?," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 45-72, December.
    9. Jason M. Fletcher & Matthew N. Murray, 2006. "Competition over the Tax Base in the State Sales Tax," Public Finance Review, , vol. 34(3), pages 258-281, May.
    10. Yonghong Wu & Rebecca Hendrick, 2009. "Horizontal and Vertical Tax Competition in Florida Local Governments," Public Finance Review, , vol. 37(3), pages 289-311, May.
    11. Agrawal, David R., 2016. "Local fiscal competition: An application to sales taxation with multiple federations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 122-138.
    12. Suárez-Varela, Marta & Martínez-Espiñeira, Roberto & González-Gómez, Francisco, 2015. "An analysis of the price escalation of non-linear water tariffs for domestic uses in Spain," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 82-93.
    13. Burge, Gregory S. & Piper, Brian, 2012. "Strategic Fiscal Interdependence: County and Municipal Adoptions of Local Option Sales Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(2), pages 387-415, June.
    14. Alan Ponce & Raul Alberto Ponce Rodriguez, 2020. "An Analysis of the Supply of Open Government Data," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, October.
    15. Maarten Allers & J. Elhorst, 2005. "Tax Mimicking and Yardstick Competition Among Local Governments in the Netherlands," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(4), pages 493-513, August.
    16. Stefan Van Parys & Tom Verbeke, 2000. "Tax Competition Among Belgian Municipalities: a Multidimensional Battle?," Regional and Urban Modeling 283600100, EcoMod.
    17. Chirinko, Robert S. & Wilsom, Daniel J., 2010. "Can Lower Tax Rates Be Bought? Business Rent-Seeking and Tax Competition Among U.S. States," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(4), pages 967-993, December.
    18. Fernando Broner & Daragh Clancy & Aitor Erce & Alberto Martin, 2022. "Fiscal Multipliers and Foreign Holdings of Public Debt," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(3), pages 1155-1204.
    19. Vieira, Flávio & MacDonald, Ronald & Damasceno, Aderbal, 2012. "The role of institutions in cross-section income and panel data growth models: A deeper investigation on the weakness and proliferation of instruments," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 127-140.
    20. Dettling, Lisa J. & Kearney, Melissa S., 2014. "House prices and birth rates: The impact of the real estate market on the decision to have a baby," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 82-100.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:41:y:2013:i:2:p:177-202. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.