Taxation of Oil and Gas in the United States 1970-1997

This article provides an extensive examination of all major types of taxes and royalties levied on the oil and gas industry by federal, state, and local governments in the United States during the 1970-1997 period. Important taxes levied on the oil and gas industry can be grouped into three broad categories based on their effects on resource extraction: (1) production, (2) property, and (3) income. Reliance on these three types of taxes differs substantially among the eight key states responsible for about 73 percent of U.S. oil and 83 percent of U.S. gas production (Alaska, California, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming). A detailed comparison of differences in institutional structure and effective tax rates for the eight major oil and gas producing states is presented

Pre-Election Polling and the Rational Voter: Evidence from State Panel Data (1986–1998)

This study examines the role of pre-election perceptions of race closeness, by way of newspaper polls, in motivating citizens to vote on a specific contest while in the voting booth. Results from an error components model (random effects), employing state panel data of concurrent gubernatorial and Senate elections for the period 1986 to 1998, fail to bolster the rational voter hypothesis that perceived closeness matters. The extent to which pre-election perception matters is shown to depend directly on how one measures the likelihood of a close contest. In contrast, few long-standing variables, inherent to the voting literature, have any impact on “within-booth” voting behavior. The majority of within-booth abstention is left unexplained; furthering the notion of Matsusaka and Palda (1999) that the act of voting, indeed, may be random. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001

Industry chasing and the tax effect: a question of approach

This paper employs a sample selection model to analyse the effects of a location's tax climate on manufacturing activity from 1974-1994. Results reveal the 'tax effect' varies substantially across industry and is significant in half of the industries analysed-chemical and allieds and food and kindreds. These results reinforce the lack of a robust consensus regarding this issue and highlight the importance of disaggregating industry.

Taxation of oil and gas in the United States 1970-1997

This article provides an extensive examination of all major types of taxes and royalties levied on the oil and gas industry by federal, state, and local governments in the United States during the 1970-1997 period. Important taxes levied on the oil and gas industry can be grouped into three broad categories based on their effects on resource extraction: (1) production, (2) property, and (3) income. Reliance on these three types of taxes differs substantially among the eight key states responsible for about 73 percent of U.S. oil and 83 percent of U.S. gas production (Alaska, California, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming). A detailed comparison of differences in institutional structure and effective tax rates for the eight major oil and gas producing states is presented

Do Policymakers Locate Prisons for Economic Development?

While public goods can provide an overall increase in welfare, 'inferior' public facilities produce externalities specifically impacting host locations. Heterogeneous jurisdictional attributes, however, can cause net social benefits to vary across potential host communities. Using data from a unique public works project, this paper empirically investigates whether policymakers consider heterogeneous conditions when locating prison facilities. Results indicate that policymakers follow a process that maximizes net social benefits by systematically delegating such facilities to lagging communities; thereby potentially using the public facilities for economic development. Additionally, results suggest that policymakers properly consider existing infrastructure and agglomeration economies in the siting mechanism. Copyright 2001 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.

Efficient decentralized fiscal and environmental policy: A dual purpose Henry George tax

One consequence of decentralized responsibility to set tax policy and environmental standards is that local governments might try to attract industry and jobs by underproviding local public goods with lower taxes or lax environmental standards or both. But if local authorities exploit fixed property site (i.e., land) taxation to fund local public goods, affect firm migration, and internalize potential local emission rents, herein we find decentralized efficiency is supported. This result reflects a dual form of the classic Henry George theorem previously overlooked.

State Taxation, Exploration, And Production In The U.S. Oil Industry

How do firms in nonrenewable resource industries respond to changes in state taxes? This paper presents simulations of changes in state production (severance) tax policy on the timing of exploration and output in Wyoming. The framework developed allows for interactions between taxes levied by different levels of government. Results suggest that oil production is highly inelastic with respect to changes in production taxes. Policy implications suggest that increases in production taxes on oil risk little loss in future production. The extent to which these results may generalize to other oil producing states is considered