Public Economics.

• Position: Bureau News

Over 50 members and guests of the NBER's Program on Public Economics, directed by James M. Poterba of NBER and MIT, met in Cambridge on November 1 and 2. The following papers were discussed:

Douglas B. Bernheim, NBER and Stanford University, Robert J. Lemke, Florida International University, and John Karl Scholz, NBER and the University of Wisconsin, "Do Estate and Gift Taxes Affect the Timing of Private Transfers?" (NBER Working Paper No. 8333)

Discussant: Kathleen McGarry, NBER and University of California at Los Angeles

Alberto Alesina and Caroline M. Hoxby, NBER and Harvard University, and Reza Baqir, University of California at Berkeley, "Political Jurisdictions in Heterogeneous Communities" (NBER Working Paper No. 7859)

Discussant: Thomas J. Nechyba, NBER and Duke University

Darius Lakdawalla, NBER and RAND Corporation, "The Declining Quality of Teachers" (NBER Working Paper No. 8263)

Discussant: Mark Duggan, NBER and University of Chicago

Jonathan Gruber, NBER and MIT, and Botond Koszegi, University of California at Berkeley, "A Theory of Government Regulation of Addictive Bads: Optimal Tax Levels and Tax Incidence for Cigarette Excise Taxation"

Discussant: David Laibson, NBER and Harvard University

Raymond Fisman, Columbia University, and Shang-Jin Wei, NBER and Harvard University, "Tax Rates and Tax Evasion: Evidence from the 'Missing Imports' in China" (NBER Working Paper No. 8551)

Discussant: James R. Hines, Jr., NBER and University of Michigan

Bruce D. Meyer, NBER and Northwestern University, and Bradley T. Heim, Northwestern University, "Structural Labor Supply Models when Budget Constraints are Nonlinear," and "Work Costs and Nonconvex Preferences in the Estimation of Labor Supply Models"

Discussant: Jerry A. Hausman, NBER and MIT

Emmanuel Saez, NBER and Harvard University, "Optimal Progressive Capital Income Taxes in the Infinite Horizon Model"

Discussant: Kenneth L. Judd, NBER and Stanford University

Bernheim, Lemke, and Scholz seek to identify the effects of gift and estate taxation on the timing of private transfers. Their analysis is based on data from the 1989, 1992, 1995, and 1998 waves of the Surveys of Consumer Finances. Legislative activity during that period reduced the tax disadvantage of bequests relative to gifts. Moreover, the magnitude of this reduction differed systematically across identifiable household categories. The authors find that households experiencing larger declines in the expected tax...