Skip to main content

Robert Strauss

Carnegie Mellon University, Heinz College, School of Public Policy and Management, Faculty Member

Followers

13

Following

108

Co-author

1

Public Views

Husband, tenured full professor and scholar, father, grandfather, and mentor to thousands of undergraduate and graduate students since 1969. Two presidential pens and other awards for constructively helping change current tax law at the federal, state, and local levels.For details, go to: www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/rs9f

less

California State University, Sacramento

Kelson Northeimer

Earlham College

Jeffrey Carroll

Hemal Lakpethum

University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Interests

Uploads

Papers by Robert Strauss

School Finance Reform in Pennsylvania: A Progress Report from the Trenches

A description and analysis of two failed local finance reform efforts in Pennsylvania between 198... more A description and analysis of two failed local finance reform efforts in Pennsylvania between 1987 and 1989--a blue ribbon tax reform commission and a state constitutional amendment--are presented in this report. Constraints imposed during the reform design stage and two political "tar pits"--household/business proportion of local taxes, and commuter taxes--interacted to forestall successful adoption. Factors that contributed to the defeat of the reform efforts include inadequate public education; fear of increased personal income taxes; lack of governor support; inaccurate and disorganized drafting; and the development of partisan political and business factions. Most significant was the inadequacy of a short-term state commission and a special legislative session for large-scale, structural tax reform. Issues that must be addressed before financial reform efforts are undertaken are household/business local tax allocation, interdistrict fiscal tensions, and public education. Two statistif7a1 tables are included. (7 references) (LMI) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.

Administrative and Revenue Implications of Alternative Federal Consumption Taxes for the State and Local Sector

Countries that do not use the VAT can build up quite unreasonable fears about its introduction.-A... more Countries that do not use the VAT can build up quite unreasonable fears about its introduction.-Alan Tait 1988. I've always said we're only one President away from a VAT.-Charles McLure, Jr., 1987. A general sales tax may, unless every precaution is taken, involve so many administrative problems almost impossible of solution that it will fall of its own weight.-Ways and Means Committee 1932.

Teacher Preparation and Selection in Pennsylvania: Ensuring High Performance Classroom Teachers for the 21st Century

This report provides a comprehensive view of teacher preparation, program approval, and teacher s... more This report provides a comprehensive view of teacher preparation, program approval, and teacher selection practices in Pennsylvania and other states. The major premise is that, due to changing student and teacher demographics, Pennsylvania has an opportunity to improve the quality of the teaching force as teachers retire and as Pennsylvania raises its expectations of student achievement. Chapter 1 of the report is an Executive Summary. Chapter 2, "Introduction," discusses the changing nature of state education policy and the importance of classroom teacher quality. Chapter 3, "Other Studies of Teacher Supply and Demand, Training, Quality, and Hiring," examines the academic literature and state specific studies of teacher preparation, focusing on six states. In Chapter 4, "Teacher Preparation and Program Approval in Other States," states are compared in terms of their self-reported teacher certification requirements. Chapter 5, "An Overview of Pennsylvania's Public Education System," describes the basic empirical features of the Pennsylvania public education system, which is projected to enroll 1.811 million students by school year 2000. Chapter 6, "Teacher Preparation and Selection in Pennsylvania," examines in detail what is known about the standardized teacher examinations used in Pennsylvania and comparison states. Chapter 7, "Teacher Quality and Teacher Selectivity in Pennsylvania," examines the issue of teacher quality, as measured by success on standardized content knowledge examinations. Chapter 8, "Employment Procedures and Practices in Pennsylvania," reports the results of surveying each of Pennsylvania's 501 school superintendents, school board presidents, and union presidents in terms of their teacher recruitment practices. Chapter 9, "Implications for Public Education in Pennsylvania," discusses conventional and unconventional reform strategies to improve the preparation, selection, and development of teachers in Pennsylvania. Chapters 10 through 14 contain, respectively, the complete employment survey and letters of solicitation, Connecticut's program approval standards, communications from the Study Liaison Committee to local school officials, the 1998 Study Liaison Committee Recommendations to the State Board of Education, and a bibliography of 61 sources. (Contains 65 tables.) (SLD) Foreward vii This is the fifth in a series of _research .reports on public education -in Pennsylvania I have developed at Carnegie-Mellon University. The first two studies 1 dealt first with measuring the differential access to advanced science and mathematics courses among secondary schools in Western Pennsylvania, and then developing alternative strategies which might improve access to such courses for poorer, smaller, and more remote school districts. The third2 dealt with the adequacy of Pennsylvania's teachers across all grade levels, the ability of the State's various teacher certification programs to meet evolving teacher needs in the remainder of the decade, and the determinants of students' post-secondary educational plans. The fourth monograph, completed on September 3, 1996 for the Vira I. Heinz Foundation August, continued the third line of inquiry with special emphasis on the selectivity of Western Pennsylvania's school districts in terms of the content knowledge of new hires over the last decade.3 Upon completion of the 1996 in depth study of teacher preparation and selection in Western Pennsylvania, I convened a series of meetings with Ms. Helen Caffrey and several other members of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, and relevant stakeholders from the public education community. The meetings, held at Carnegie-Mellon through the Fall of 1996, discussed the research findings about teacher preparation and selection in Western Pennsylvania, and the implications for educational policy. As a consequence of these discussions, a series of follow-up research questions' were developed in conjunction with a Study Liason Committee of the State Board composed of Ms. Caffrey (Chair), Dr. Earl Horton and Mr. Karl Girton. As the State Board intended to take up matters relating to teacher certification and program approval in the Spring and Summer of 1997, the research -project was structured to assist them in their deliberations through calendar 1997. This Report represents the results of those efforts. In January, 1997, the State Board of Education, at the request of the Study Liason Committee, approved funding of the research project. Ms. Caffrey, as Chair, ensured that our analysis, data collection, and briefings were relevant to the tasks they faced as the State Board considered Chapter 49 of the regulations governing teacher certification and program approval in Pennsylvania.

The Impact of Not Collecting Sales and Use Taxes from Internet Sales into Pennsylvania

Nationally, internet commerce amounts to trillions of dollars of sales per year, and business and... more Nationally, internet commerce amounts to trillions of dollars of sales per year, and business and consumer purchases from internet retailers are increasing rapidly. However, Pennsylvania has a limited ability to compel remote vendors without a physical presence in Pennsylvania to collect and remit sales and use taxes for internet transactions, 1 and for 2012, it is estimated that such uncollected revenues range from $254 to $410 million for Pennsylvania. In addition to this uncollected revenue and its obvious impact on the Commonwealth's finances, the non-collection of sales taxes by some internet retailers shifts sales away from tax-collecting retailers, which importantly includes in-state brick-and-mortar stores. The lower sales for brick-and-mortar stores in turn reduces the economic impact of these stores on the rest of Pennsylvania. If all internet retailers were required to collect sales tax, placing them on equal footing with taxcollecting retailers, it would increase tax receipts to Pennsylvania, and increase sales at brickand-mortar stores. Impact on Pennsylvania's finances -The primary impact on the Pennsylvania treasury is through the loss of uncollected sales tax, and the secondary impact is through lower employment and other taxes because of decreased business at in-state brick-and-mortar stores. Requiring the collection of sales and use taxes would increase tax collections by the Department of Revenue significantly, even though it would decrease overall purchases slightly, thereby decreasing the tax base. It would also likely take time for retailers to come into compliance. Estimates for the potential amount of revenue that could be collected in 2012, if shopping patterns changed

Alternative Approaches To Reinstating A Taxable Property Values Survey

Nonfarm residential property, single-family houses, acreage, vacant plotted lots, commercial and ... more

Long Run Research Interests and Current Research Projects

My general research interests include positive and normative economic analysis in the applied and... more My general research interests include positive and normative economic analysis in the applied and theoretical areas of public economics and human resources, and the development of theoretical and empirical statistical techniques related to these areas of inquiry. My research is typically collaborative across disciplinary boundaries, and often results in meaningful civic engagement at the federal, state and local levels. I seek to report with students and faculty collaborators research findings in appropriate scholarly journals as well as through various kinds of civic engagement. --the readability of the US federal tax system using Natural Language Processing; --the effects of deductibility of health expenditures in the federal personal income tax; --the design of least regressive national retail sales taxation in the US and Canada --the theory and measurement of vertical and horizontal equity, and effective tax function analysis of the US tax system, 1960-2008; --the effects of Marcellus Shale exploration on public roads, and the general sustainability of public roads given the current system of transportation finance; --governance structures of publicly listed corporations and k-12 public education; redesign of Pennsylvania's statutory language dealing with public education's oath of office, business judgment rule, superintendent-school board reporting requirements. --effects of teacher quality reforms in Pennsylvania on teacher preparation institutions and student performance; the design of mechanisms for improving the efficiency of teacher labor markets Nontraditional applications of technology to civic issues include: --A Research Guide to Marcellus/Utica Shale: A Searchable Electronic Bibliography (October , 2012) --Property Tax Estimator for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania www.propertytaxestimator.net (August, 2012, 2013) --RODAS: Road Damage Assessment System (Pothole Tracking through crowd sourcing)www.rodasproject.org (March, 2010) Pennsylvania Student and Teacher Test Score Web Site: Compare any building subgroup test scores in the state over time, view how each building does over time. Examine teacher preparation test scores and placement results by Pennsylvania Teacher

The Political Economy of the Property Tax: Assessor Authority and Assessment Uniformity

The Final Report and Recommendations of the Pennsylvania Local Tax Reform Commission

This Final Report of the Pennsylvania Local Tax Reform Commission contains a series of recommenda... more This Final Report of the Pennsylvania Local Tax Reform Commission contains a series of recommendations for the fundamental reform of local taxing authority of Pennsylvania's school districts, municipalities, and county governments. The Report responds to Governor Casey's charge that the Commission find ways to meaningfully reform the Commonwealth's local tax structure.

Bell Curves and Babies: The Interaction Between Ability, Welfare and Nonmarital Childbearing

SHOULD SALES TAXES BE IMPOSED ON E-COMMERCE?

This paper explores, through the use of a sequence of computable general equilibrium models, what... more This paper explores, through the use of a sequence of computable general equilibrium models, what harm or good, as measured both in terms of real output and utility, might be accomplished through coordinated perturbations in excise and income tax policy among sovereign jurisdictions. We focus on two issues: the taxation of below-retail transactions and the taxation of E-commerce across state lines for jurisdictions that are comparable in fiscal structure and size, and for circumstances when both fiscal structure and size systematically vary. JEL Classification: H2, H7, C68, F1 ∗This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 2003 Public Economic Theory conference, Duke University. We wish to thank participants for helpful comments. Responsibility for the paper rests with the authors and not with the University of Alabama and/or Carnegie-Mellon University (or their Trustees). †Corresponding Author: Robert P. Strauss, Hamburg Hall, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890; phone: 412-268-4798, fax: 412-268-5098.

Their Role in Improving Outcomes

In Pennsylvania, there was evidence over the period 1975-1999 of aggregate excess supply in the n... more In Pennsylvania, there was evidence over the period 1975-1999 of aggregate excess supply in the number of newly certified administrators (principals and superintendents) compared to the number of vacancies. The number of provisional administrative certificates was 40% higher in the mid 1990's than to the prior peak in 1975. However, increasingly districts have sought principals and superintendents from outside their districts or region to meet their administrative needs. This suggests that there may be coordination problems in the market. The turnover of school and especially district administrators was much higher than that of teachers. Over 1984-99, teacher salaries generally rose faster than inflation, and the range of lowest to highest teacher compensation was maintained, presumably through the collective bargaining process and the right to strike, of about 2:1. On the other hand, administrative salaries over 1984-99 displayed declining premiums compared to teaching. This decline in the premium for becoming a school manager was most pronounced in the case of elementary principals. While premiums for administration declined, the likely range of responsibility increased over the 1984-99 period, since school employment has generally increased but the number of administrators has remained constant. While there was evidence that higher administrative pay premiums were associated with higher student achievement, the effect was not very large in terms of student test scores. School administration has become increasingly a female occupation as public education has always been. The very pronounced changes in the demographics of school managers may have significant implications for the sociology and nature of student disciplinary interactions in the schools themselves. In general, the characteristics of school administrators did not directly or substantially impact building level student achievement scores. On the other hand, whether or not a building had employed teachers who were disciplined by the state did make a difference. Thus, indirectly through the teacher hiring process, the nature of administrative choice can make a difference in student achievement. Whether paper and pencil knowledge of Pennsylvania's administrative school procedures, now required of newly certified administrators, is related to student achievement remains an untested hypothesis and worthy of further investigation.

Equity and the environment: An application of the Berliant–Strauss vertical and horizontal equity framework to measuring the distributional effects of air quality regulation

International Journal of Economic Theory, 2020

The distributional effects of a major air regulation in the United State in 2015 were analyzed us... more The distributional effects of a major air regulation in the United State in 2015 were analyzed using Berliant and Strauss Index Numbers, a set of theoretical and empirical equity metrics, and reduced-form models that estimate the mortality effects of air pollutant emissions and their source contributions. By viewing the effects of pollution on human mortality as an implicit tax, we found progressivity in 54% to 56% of vertical comparisons and inequity in 92% to 94% of horizontal comparisons. The introduction of the proposed policy made 58% of vertical comparisons more progressive and was equitable to 70% of horizontal comparisons.

The Impact of Not Collecting Sales and Use Taxes from Internet Sales into Pennsylvania

Nationally, internet commerce amounts to trillions of dollars of sales per year, and business and... more Nationally, internet commerce amounts to trillions of dollars of sales per year, and business and consumer purchases from internet retailers are increasing rapidly. However, Pennsylvania has a limited ability to compel remote vendors without a physical presence in Pennsylvania to collect and remit sales and use taxes for internet transactions, 1 and for 2012, it is estimated that such uncollected revenues range from $254 to $410 million for Pennsylvania. In addition to this uncollected revenue and its obvious impact on the Commonwealth's finances, the non-collection of sales taxes by some internet retailers shifts sales away from tax-collecting retailers, which importantly includes in-state brick-and-mortar stores. The lower sales for brick-and-mortar stores in turn reduces the economic impact of these stores on the rest of Pennsylvania. If all internet retailers were required to collect sales tax, placing them on equal footing with taxcollecting retailers, it would increase tax...

A Sales Ratio Study of the City of Philadelphia's 2013 Certified and 2014 Proposed Real Estate Assessments

This report responds to an invitation by the Controller of the City of Philadelphia, effective Ap... more This report responds to an invitation by the Controller of the City of Philadelphia, effective April 11, 2013, to perform a timely and independent review of the pending reassessment of real property in the City of Philadelphia. The recent mailing of proposed 2014 assessed values, and the pending legislative decision to be effected by ordinance by Philadelphia City Council and the Mayor to certify the proposed 2014 assessed values for tax year 2014 makes such an independent review of broad interest. This report focuses on the relationship between the old and proposed assessed values and recently observed sales prices. Such comparisons inform on the accuracy and fairness of the results of the reassessment process. An examination of the plausibility and accuracy of the underlying data publicly available and used by the Office of Property Assessments of the City of Philadelphia to perform the reassessments, and a spatial analysis of aspects of old and new assessed values provide insight...

Predicting the Frequency and Depreciation in Real Estate Assessment Quality in Pennsylvania: 1988-2008

In the United States, the real estate tax continues to be the most important own-source local tax... more In the United States, the real estate tax continues to be the most important own-source local tax revenue. As a consequence, there is a vast practitioner literature about how a local real estate tax can be administered most fairly and inexpensively. The International Association of Assessing Officers has promulgated manuals, training, standards of practice, and statutory language that define and enable best assessment practice . Until 1982, the Governments Division of the US Census Bureau measured and reported the quality of residential property assessment by metropolitan area and state4 . Beyond these two important research enterprises, other public finance researchers have explored a wide variety of questions about the valuation mechanism that underlies application of local real estate taxation.

The Drake Hotel Chicago

Nsttute for Research on Povertyd,scwk~j~~ Discrimination against Negroes in the Labor Market: the Impact of Monopoly Power on Negro Male Employment" Patterns Discrimination against Negroes in the Labor Market: the Impact of Monopoly Power on Negro Male Employment Patterns

Ribich for their comments. I would like to thank the Institute for their generous support of comp... more Ribich for their comments. I would like to thank the Institute for their generous support of computing and programming , and Karl and Alma Taeuber who originally interested me in this subject and graciously provided me with unpublished Census data. employment, 1950 to 1960. The impact of these variables depends on the occupation in question: Industrial concentration had a generally depressing effect on employment in the midd1e-and high-level occupations and a favorable effect in the low-level occupations. Unions, as expected, have a depressing, occupation-specific effect on Negro employment. Expansion of employment had a depressing effect on Negro employment. Because educational attainment was standardized when measuring employment representation, it follows that attitudes or prejudice, reinforced by monopoly power, are the primary obstacles to increased Negro employment. Thus, where Negroes have been employed, it would seem attitudes of white employers and employees have been moder...

Distributional, Employment, and Budgetary Effects of Living Wage Ordinances

The Effect of Pension Incentives and Working Conditions on Retirement Decisions

The retirement behavior of Pennsylvania public school teachers is modeled using a choice framewor... more The retirement behavior of Pennsylvania public school teachers is modeled using a choice framework that emphasizes both pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors. We find each to have large and statistically significant effects on the decision to retire. The present value of inflation adjusted pension benefits is found to be an important determinant of retirement. A $1,000 (or .4 percent) increase in the value of pension benefits is estimated to increase the probability of retirement by .029 to .078 percentage points; this implies an elasticity of retirement with respect to the present value of real pensions of between 2.1 to 2.9. Estimated pension elasticities for female teachers are somewhat lower than for male teachers. A $1,000 increase in current salary is found to reduce the mean probability of retirement by .1 percentage points, implying an elasticity of –1.4. Student achievement (but not student poverty) is also significantly related to teacher retirement; a one standard deviation...

Session on Cities and Policy Advice

Income Division of the IRS for providing a variety of summary information about county migration ... more Income Division of the IRS for providing a variety of summary information about county migration patterns. Responsibility for the research findings and any errors in this paper, however, are the sole responsibility of the authors. It is now almost a decade since the prospect of the end of the Cold War led optimists to predict a domestic policy renaissance in the US which would result from redirecting some federal defense spending to a wide range of domestic public service needs. In retrospect this seems naive, especially in light of the increased skepticism which the voting public have expressed for

School Finance Reform in Pennsylvania: A Progress Report from the Trenches

A description and analysis of two failed local finance reform efforts in Pennsylvania between 198... more A description and analysis of two failed local finance reform efforts in Pennsylvania between 1987 and 1989--a blue ribbon tax reform commission and a state constitutional amendment--are presented in this report. Constraints imposed during the reform design stage and two political "tar pits"--household/business proportion of local taxes, and commuter taxes--interacted to forestall successful adoption. Factors that contributed to the defeat of the reform efforts include inadequate public education; fear of increased personal income taxes; lack of governor support; inaccurate and disorganized drafting; and the development of partisan political and business factions. Most significant was the inadequacy of a short-term state commission and a special legislative session for large-scale, structural tax reform. Issues that must be addressed before financial reform efforts are undertaken are household/business local tax allocation, interdistrict fiscal tensions, and public education. Two statistif7a1 tables are included. (7 references) (LMI) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.

Administrative and Revenue Implications of Alternative Federal Consumption Taxes for the State and Local Sector

Countries that do not use the VAT can build up quite unreasonable fears about its introduction.-A... more Countries that do not use the VAT can build up quite unreasonable fears about its introduction.-Alan Tait 1988. I've always said we're only one President away from a VAT.-Charles McLure, Jr., 1987. A general sales tax may, unless every precaution is taken, involve so many administrative problems almost impossible of solution that it will fall of its own weight.-Ways and Means Committee 1932.

Teacher Preparation and Selection in Pennsylvania: Ensuring High Performance Classroom Teachers for the 21st Century

This report provides a comprehensive view of teacher preparation, program approval, and teacher s... more This report provides a comprehensive view of teacher preparation, program approval, and teacher selection practices in Pennsylvania and other states. The major premise is that, due to changing student and teacher demographics, Pennsylvania has an opportunity to improve the quality of the teaching force as teachers retire and as Pennsylvania raises its expectations of student achievement. Chapter 1 of the report is an Executive Summary. Chapter 2, "Introduction," discusses the changing nature of state education policy and the importance of classroom teacher quality. Chapter 3, "Other Studies of Teacher Supply and Demand, Training, Quality, and Hiring," examines the academic literature and state specific studies of teacher preparation, focusing on six states. In Chapter 4, "Teacher Preparation and Program Approval in Other States," states are compared in terms of their self-reported teacher certification requirements. Chapter 5, "An Overview of Pennsylvania's Public Education System," describes the basic empirical features of the Pennsylvania public education system, which is projected to enroll 1.811 million students by school year 2000. Chapter 6, "Teacher Preparation and Selection in Pennsylvania," examines in detail what is known about the standardized teacher examinations used in Pennsylvania and comparison states. Chapter 7, "Teacher Quality and Teacher Selectivity in Pennsylvania," examines the issue of teacher quality, as measured by success on standardized content knowledge examinations. Chapter 8, "Employment Procedures and Practices in Pennsylvania," reports the results of surveying each of Pennsylvania's 501 school superintendents, school board presidents, and union presidents in terms of their teacher recruitment practices. Chapter 9, "Implications for Public Education in Pennsylvania," discusses conventional and unconventional reform strategies to improve the preparation, selection, and development of teachers in Pennsylvania. Chapters 10 through 14 contain, respectively, the complete employment survey and letters of solicitation, Connecticut's program approval standards, communications from the Study Liaison Committee to local school officials, the 1998 Study Liaison Committee Recommendations to the State Board of Education, and a bibliography of 61 sources. (Contains 65 tables.) (SLD) Foreward vii This is the fifth in a series of _research .reports on public education -in Pennsylvania I have developed at Carnegie-Mellon University. The first two studies 1 dealt first with measuring the differential access to advanced science and mathematics courses among secondary schools in Western Pennsylvania, and then developing alternative strategies which might improve access to such courses for poorer, smaller, and more remote school districts. The third2 dealt with the adequacy of Pennsylvania's teachers across all grade levels, the ability of the State's various teacher certification programs to meet evolving teacher needs in the remainder of the decade, and the determinants of students' post-secondary educational plans. The fourth monograph, completed on September 3, 1996 for the Vira I. Heinz Foundation August, continued the third line of inquiry with special emphasis on the selectivity of Western Pennsylvania's school districts in terms of the content knowledge of new hires over the last decade.3 Upon completion of the 1996 in depth study of teacher preparation and selection in Western Pennsylvania, I convened a series of meetings with Ms. Helen Caffrey and several other members of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, and relevant stakeholders from the public education community. The meetings, held at Carnegie-Mellon through the Fall of 1996, discussed the research findings about teacher preparation and selection in Western Pennsylvania, and the implications for educational policy. As a consequence of these discussions, a series of follow-up research questions' were developed in conjunction with a Study Liason Committee of the State Board composed of Ms. Caffrey (Chair), Dr. Earl Horton and Mr. Karl Girton. As the State Board intended to take up matters relating to teacher certification and program approval in the Spring and Summer of 1997, the research -project was structured to assist them in their deliberations through calendar 1997. This Report represents the results of those efforts. In January, 1997, the State Board of Education, at the request of the Study Liason Committee, approved funding of the research project. Ms. Caffrey, as Chair, ensured that our analysis, data collection, and briefings were relevant to the tasks they faced as the State Board considered Chapter 49 of the regulations governing teacher certification and program approval in Pennsylvania.

The Impact of Not Collecting Sales and Use Taxes from Internet Sales into Pennsylvania

Nationally, internet commerce amounts to trillions of dollars of sales per year, and business and... more Nationally, internet commerce amounts to trillions of dollars of sales per year, and business and consumer purchases from internet retailers are increasing rapidly. However, Pennsylvania has a limited ability to compel remote vendors without a physical presence in Pennsylvania to collect and remit sales and use taxes for internet transactions, 1 and for 2012, it is estimated that such uncollected revenues range from $254 to $410 million for Pennsylvania. In addition to this uncollected revenue and its obvious impact on the Commonwealth's finances, the non-collection of sales taxes by some internet retailers shifts sales away from tax-collecting retailers, which importantly includes in-state brick-and-mortar stores. The lower sales for brick-and-mortar stores in turn reduces the economic impact of these stores on the rest of Pennsylvania. If all internet retailers were required to collect sales tax, placing them on equal footing with taxcollecting retailers, it would increase tax receipts to Pennsylvania, and increase sales at brickand-mortar stores. Impact on Pennsylvania's finances -The primary impact on the Pennsylvania treasury is through the loss of uncollected sales tax, and the secondary impact is through lower employment and other taxes because of decreased business at in-state brick-and-mortar stores. Requiring the collection of sales and use taxes would increase tax collections by the Department of Revenue significantly, even though it would decrease overall purchases slightly, thereby decreasing the tax base. It would also likely take time for retailers to come into compliance. Estimates for the potential amount of revenue that could be collected in 2012, if shopping patterns changed

Alternative Approaches To Reinstating A Taxable Property Values Survey

Nonfarm residential property, single-family houses, acreage, vacant plotted lots, commercial and ... more

Long Run Research Interests and Current Research Projects

My general research interests include positive and normative economic analysis in the applied and... more My general research interests include positive and normative economic analysis in the applied and theoretical areas of public economics and human resources, and the development of theoretical and empirical statistical techniques related to these areas of inquiry. My research is typically collaborative across disciplinary boundaries, and often results in meaningful civic engagement at the federal, state and local levels. I seek to report with students and faculty collaborators research findings in appropriate scholarly journals as well as through various kinds of civic engagement. --the readability of the US federal tax system using Natural Language Processing; --the effects of deductibility of health expenditures in the federal personal income tax; --the design of least regressive national retail sales taxation in the US and Canada --the theory and measurement of vertical and horizontal equity, and effective tax function analysis of the US tax system, 1960-2008; --the effects of Marcellus Shale exploration on public roads, and the general sustainability of public roads given the current system of transportation finance; --governance structures of publicly listed corporations and k-12 public education; redesign of Pennsylvania's statutory language dealing with public education's oath of office, business judgment rule, superintendent-school board reporting requirements. --effects of teacher quality reforms in Pennsylvania on teacher preparation institutions and student performance; the design of mechanisms for improving the efficiency of teacher labor markets Nontraditional applications of technology to civic issues include: --A Research Guide to Marcellus/Utica Shale: A Searchable Electronic Bibliography (October , 2012) --Property Tax Estimator for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania www.propertytaxestimator.net (August, 2012, 2013) --RODAS: Road Damage Assessment System (Pothole Tracking through crowd sourcing)www.rodasproject.org (March, 2010) Pennsylvania Student and Teacher Test Score Web Site: Compare any building subgroup test scores in the state over time, view how each building does over time. Examine teacher preparation test scores and placement results by Pennsylvania Teacher

The Political Economy of the Property Tax: Assessor Authority and Assessment Uniformity

The Final Report and Recommendations of the Pennsylvania Local Tax Reform Commission

This Final Report of the Pennsylvania Local Tax Reform Commission contains a series of recommenda... more This Final Report of the Pennsylvania Local Tax Reform Commission contains a series of recommendations for the fundamental reform of local taxing authority of Pennsylvania's school districts, municipalities, and county governments. The Report responds to Governor Casey's charge that the Commission find ways to meaningfully reform the Commonwealth's local tax structure.

Bell Curves and Babies: The Interaction Between Ability, Welfare and Nonmarital Childbearing

SHOULD SALES TAXES BE IMPOSED ON E-COMMERCE?

This paper explores, through the use of a sequence of computable general equilibrium models, what... more This paper explores, through the use of a sequence of computable general equilibrium models, what harm or good, as measured both in terms of real output and utility, might be accomplished through coordinated perturbations in excise and income tax policy among sovereign jurisdictions. We focus on two issues: the taxation of below-retail transactions and the taxation of E-commerce across state lines for jurisdictions that are comparable in fiscal structure and size, and for circumstances when both fiscal structure and size systematically vary. JEL Classification: H2, H7, C68, F1 ∗This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 2003 Public Economic Theory conference, Duke University. We wish to thank participants for helpful comments. Responsibility for the paper rests with the authors and not with the University of Alabama and/or Carnegie-Mellon University (or their Trustees). †Corresponding Author: Robert P. Strauss, Hamburg Hall, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890; phone: 412-268-4798, fax: 412-268-5098.

Their Role in Improving Outcomes

In Pennsylvania, there was evidence over the period 1975-1999 of aggregate excess supply in the n... more In Pennsylvania, there was evidence over the period 1975-1999 of aggregate excess supply in the number of newly certified administrators (principals and superintendents) compared to the number of vacancies. The number of provisional administrative certificates was 40% higher in the mid 1990's than to the prior peak in 1975. However, increasingly districts have sought principals and superintendents from outside their districts or region to meet their administrative needs. This suggests that there may be coordination problems in the market. The turnover of school and especially district administrators was much higher than that of teachers. Over 1984-99, teacher salaries generally rose faster than inflation, and the range of lowest to highest teacher compensation was maintained, presumably through the collective bargaining process and the right to strike, of about 2:1. On the other hand, administrative salaries over 1984-99 displayed declining premiums compared to teaching. This decline in the premium for becoming a school manager was most pronounced in the case of elementary principals. While premiums for administration declined, the likely range of responsibility increased over the 1984-99 period, since school employment has generally increased but the number of administrators has remained constant. While there was evidence that higher administrative pay premiums were associated with higher student achievement, the effect was not very large in terms of student test scores. School administration has become increasingly a female occupation as public education has always been. The very pronounced changes in the demographics of school managers may have significant implications for the sociology and nature of student disciplinary interactions in the schools themselves. In general, the characteristics of school administrators did not directly or substantially impact building level student achievement scores. On the other hand, whether or not a building had employed teachers who were disciplined by the state did make a difference. Thus, indirectly through the teacher hiring process, the nature of administrative choice can make a difference in student achievement. Whether paper and pencil knowledge of Pennsylvania's administrative school procedures, now required of newly certified administrators, is related to student achievement remains an untested hypothesis and worthy of further investigation.

Equity and the environment: An application of the Berliant–Strauss vertical and horizontal equity framework to measuring the distributional effects of air quality regulation

International Journal of Economic Theory, 2020

The distributional effects of a major air regulation in the United State in 2015 were analyzed us... more The distributional effects of a major air regulation in the United State in 2015 were analyzed using Berliant and Strauss Index Numbers, a set of theoretical and empirical equity metrics, and reduced-form models that estimate the mortality effects of air pollutant emissions and their source contributions. By viewing the effects of pollution on human mortality as an implicit tax, we found progressivity in 54% to 56% of vertical comparisons and inequity in 92% to 94% of horizontal comparisons. The introduction of the proposed policy made 58% of vertical comparisons more progressive and was equitable to 70% of horizontal comparisons.

The Impact of Not Collecting Sales and Use Taxes from Internet Sales into Pennsylvania

Nationally, internet commerce amounts to trillions of dollars of sales per year, and business and... more Nationally, internet commerce amounts to trillions of dollars of sales per year, and business and consumer purchases from internet retailers are increasing rapidly. However, Pennsylvania has a limited ability to compel remote vendors without a physical presence in Pennsylvania to collect and remit sales and use taxes for internet transactions, 1 and for 2012, it is estimated that such uncollected revenues range from $254 to $410 million for Pennsylvania. In addition to this uncollected revenue and its obvious impact on the Commonwealth's finances, the non-collection of sales taxes by some internet retailers shifts sales away from tax-collecting retailers, which importantly includes in-state brick-and-mortar stores. The lower sales for brick-and-mortar stores in turn reduces the economic impact of these stores on the rest of Pennsylvania. If all internet retailers were required to collect sales tax, placing them on equal footing with taxcollecting retailers, it would increase tax...

A Sales Ratio Study of the City of Philadelphia's 2013 Certified and 2014 Proposed Real Estate Assessments

This report responds to an invitation by the Controller of the City of Philadelphia, effective Ap... more This report responds to an invitation by the Controller of the City of Philadelphia, effective April 11, 2013, to perform a timely and independent review of the pending reassessment of real property in the City of Philadelphia. The recent mailing of proposed 2014 assessed values, and the pending legislative decision to be effected by ordinance by Philadelphia City Council and the Mayor to certify the proposed 2014 assessed values for tax year 2014 makes such an independent review of broad interest. This report focuses on the relationship between the old and proposed assessed values and recently observed sales prices. Such comparisons inform on the accuracy and fairness of the results of the reassessment process. An examination of the plausibility and accuracy of the underlying data publicly available and used by the Office of Property Assessments of the City of Philadelphia to perform the reassessments, and a spatial analysis of aspects of old and new assessed values provide insight...

Predicting the Frequency and Depreciation in Real Estate Assessment Quality in Pennsylvania: 1988-2008

In the United States, the real estate tax continues to be the most important own-source local tax... more In the United States, the real estate tax continues to be the most important own-source local tax revenue. As a consequence, there is a vast practitioner literature about how a local real estate tax can be administered most fairly and inexpensively. The International Association of Assessing Officers has promulgated manuals, training, standards of practice, and statutory language that define and enable best assessment practice . Until 1982, the Governments Division of the US Census Bureau measured and reported the quality of residential property assessment by metropolitan area and state4 . Beyond these two important research enterprises, other public finance researchers have explored a wide variety of questions about the valuation mechanism that underlies application of local real estate taxation.

The Drake Hotel Chicago

Nsttute for Research on Povertyd,scwk~j~~ Discrimination against Negroes in the Labor Market: the Impact of Monopoly Power on Negro Male Employment" Patterns Discrimination against Negroes in the Labor Market: the Impact of Monopoly Power on Negro Male Employment Patterns

Ribich for their comments. I would like to thank the Institute for their generous support of comp... more Ribich for their comments. I would like to thank the Institute for their generous support of computing and programming , and Karl and Alma Taeuber who originally interested me in this subject and graciously provided me with unpublished Census data. employment, 1950 to 1960. The impact of these variables depends on the occupation in question: Industrial concentration had a generally depressing effect on employment in the midd1e-and high-level occupations and a favorable effect in the low-level occupations. Unions, as expected, have a depressing, occupation-specific effect on Negro employment. Expansion of employment had a depressing effect on Negro employment. Because educational attainment was standardized when measuring employment representation, it follows that attitudes or prejudice, reinforced by monopoly power, are the primary obstacles to increased Negro employment. Thus, where Negroes have been employed, it would seem attitudes of white employers and employees have been moder...

Distributional, Employment, and Budgetary Effects of Living Wage Ordinances

The Effect of Pension Incentives and Working Conditions on Retirement Decisions

The retirement behavior of Pennsylvania public school teachers is modeled using a choice framewor... more The retirement behavior of Pennsylvania public school teachers is modeled using a choice framework that emphasizes both pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors. We find each to have large and statistically significant effects on the decision to retire. The present value of inflation adjusted pension benefits is found to be an important determinant of retirement. A $1,000 (or .4 percent) increase in the value of pension benefits is estimated to increase the probability of retirement by .029 to .078 percentage points; this implies an elasticity of retirement with respect to the present value of real pensions of between 2.1 to 2.9. Estimated pension elasticities for female teachers are somewhat lower than for male teachers. A $1,000 increase in current salary is found to reduce the mean probability of retirement by .1 percentage points, implying an elasticity of –1.4. Student achievement (but not student poverty) is also significantly related to teacher retirement; a one standard deviation...

Session on Cities and Policy Advice

Income Division of the IRS for providing a variety of summary information about county migration ... more Income Division of the IRS for providing a variety of summary information about county migration patterns. Responsibility for the research findings and any errors in this paper, however, are the sole responsibility of the authors. It is now almost a decade since the prospect of the end of the Cold War led optimists to predict a domestic policy renaissance in the US which would result from redirecting some federal defense spending to a wide range of domestic public service needs. In retrospect this seems naive, especially in light of the increased skepticism which the voting public have expressed for