Fellow Joyce Beebe analyzes the evolving landscape of crowdfunding and considers the tax treatment of funds generated through platforms like GoFundMe and Kickstarter.
This paper tracks a change in the direction of Mexico’s energy policy under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — a change that inhibits private investment while attempting to restore Pemex’s oil monopoly.
Given that policymakers will eventually need to decide how to resolve the social security program’s projected shortfall, this paper presents a simulation-based approach to evaluating the conventional alternatives of adjustments to benefits or taxes.
As U.S. obesity rates continue to climb, policymakers debate whether federal food assistance funds should be used to buy candy and soda. The author examines both sides of the issue.
When illegal workers use false documents to get a job in the U.S., their employers may complete the paperwork by deducting Social Security, federal, state and Medicare taxes from each paycheck. As of 2010, illegal workers have contributed $12 billion to the Social Security system alone. Such workers face poverty in old age, as they are barred from collecting retirement benefits because of their immigration status, and they have not accrued a pension in their home country.
In the near term, a ban on shale development in Mexico will have little impact since factors like limited infrastructure and access to water would likely stall progress in any case, the authors conclude. In the long-run, a ban may adversely affect efforts to diversify Mexico’s gas supply.
Adrian Duhalt, Anna B. Mikulska, Michael D. MaherMay 3, 2019
The authors construct a tax competition model in which local governments finance business public services with either a source-based tax on mobile capital, such as a property tax, or a tax on production, such as an origin-based value added tax, and then assess which of the two tax instruments is more efficient.
For the first time in modern history, a confluence of events has given Mexico a real chance to combat systemic government corruption, the author writes.