Tax Policy and the Economy

This NBER series presents current academic research findings in the areas of taxation and government spending. The papers included provide important background information for policy analysts in government and the private sector without making specific policy recommendations. This twentieth anniversary volume addresses issues relevant to current policy debates as well as questions that are of longer-term interest. Topics include: the distribution of the corporate income tax burden; tax incentives for entrepreneurship; the effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on labor supply; refund-splitting as a way to encourage saving by low-income households; the concentration of variable annuity ownership households in high tax brackets; and new evidence on the fiscal health of the federal government that takes the Medicare prescription drug benefit into account.