Research Department Working Papers
Time-Limited Subsidies: Optimal Taxation with Implications for Renewable Energy Subsidies
Pigouvian subsidies are efficient, but output subsidies with uncertain or limited durations are not Pigouvian. This paper shows that optimal “time-limited” policies must also subsidize investment to correct externalities generated after the output subsidy ends.
August 05, 2025
Research Department Working Papers
The Fatal Consequences of Brain Drain
This paper examines the welfare consequences of reallocating high-skilled labor across national borders.
August 04, 2025
Research Department Working Papers
Revisiting the Interest Rate Effects of Federal Debt
This paper revisits the relationship between federal debt and interest rates, which is a key input for assessments of fiscal sustainability.
April 23, 2025
Monetary policy implementation and the consolidated government balance sheet
This essay examines the trade-offs between different monetary policy implementation methods through the lens of the consolidated government balance sheet and income statement
April 15, 2025
Individuals, married couples respond differently to U.S. income tax changes
Changes in effective income taxes can impact labor supply with different outcomes for married couples and singles, and changes can have a particularly notable impact on married women.
November 19, 2024
Globalization Institute Working Paper
Unequal Climate Policy in an Unequal World
This paper studies climate policy in an economy with heterogeneous households, two types of goods (clean and dirty), and a climate externality from the dirty good.
July 16, 2024
Federal deficit, tax inequities, entitlement programs vie for lawmakers’ attention
Alan D. Viard, senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute and former senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, discusses federal entitlements and tax policy challenges during an era of rising deficits.
April 15, 2024
Research Department Working Papers
Did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Create Jobs and Stimulate Growth?
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is the most extensive overhaul of the U.S. income tax code since the Tax Reform Act of 1986.
August 08, 2023
Research Department Working Papers
State-Dependent Local Projections
Do state-dependent local projections asymptotically recover the population responses of macroeconomic aggregates to structural shocks? The answer to this question depends on how the state of the economy is determined and on the magnitude of the shocks.
April 19, 2023
Research Department Working Papers
Labor Market Effects of Credit Constraints: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
This paper exploits the 1997 and 2003 constitutional amendments in Texas—allowing home equity loans and lines of credit for non-housing purposes—as natural experiments to estimate the effect of easier credit access on the labor market.
February 03, 2023