On the long run effect of public capital on aggregate output: Estimation and sensitivity analysis

We undertake a sensitivity analysis of the productivity of public capital under the aggregate production function approach. Several proxies are used for the private inputs and for public capital, several dummy variables are included to adjust for energy price shocks, newly revised data is studied, and Stock and Watson's dynamic OLS estimator is used. Our main results are that the productivity of public capital depends critically on the proxies used, the effects are typically smaller than the early estimates, and omitting the oil price shocks introduces significant upward bias in the measured productivity of public capital.Public capital, sensitivity analysis, DOLS

Local capital tax competition and coordinated tax reform in an overlapping generations economy

We extend the classic capital tax competition model to an overlapping generations economy and study the effects of a coordinated reform where capital tax rates across all locations are increased to alleviate the policy externality. Welfare across generations is examined and several new effects are derived. Simulations calibrated to US data indicate these effects may be as large as the spending effect of the classic model. The initial old generation, however, may not be better off, and an additional transfer from the initial young to the initial old may be required for the reform to be a Pareto improvement.Tax competition Overlapping generations Welfare effects