Using the Iranian Household Expenditure and Income Survey for 2011/12, we estimate the impact and effectiveness of various components of Iran’s fiscal system on reducing inequality and poverty. We utilize the marginal contribution analysis to determine the impact of each component, and we introduce newly developed indicators of effectiveness to calculate how well various taxes and transfers are operating to reduce inequality and poverty. We find that the fiscal system reduces the poverty-head-count-ratio by 10.5 percentage points and inequality by 0.0854 Gini points. Transfers are generally more effective in reducing inequality than taxes while taxes are especially effective in raising revenue without causing poverty to rise. Although transfers are not targeted toward the poor, they reduce poverty significantly. The main driver is the Targeted Subsidy Program (TSP), and we show through simulations that the poverty reducing impact of TSP could be enhanced if resources were more targeted to the bottom deciles.

Following the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, manybut not all-states decided to expand their Medicaid program in line with provisions of the new law. Will low-income individuals respond to the incentives of living in a state with better health subsidies by relocating to the state? This paper addresses this question by examining the population growth rate of low-income individuals in Massachusetts following the Massachusetts Health Care Reform (MHCR) of 2006. Like the ACA, the MHCR expanded the Medicaid program, and also provided subsidized health insurance for low-income individuals. Using difference-indifferences and tripledifferences models and Internal Revenue Service tax return data, we show that the reform did not have a global effect on the movement of low-income individuals across all cities in Massachusetts. However, we also show that the reform did have a local (or border) effect on the movement into border cities of the state, an effect that is relatively large for cities very close to the border but disappears quickly once the distance to border goes beyond 15 miles.

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Does the enormous variation in financial resources available to local schools affect student achievement? There is an intense debate over the inequality of opportunity in public schools due to differences in financial resources, but there is little empirical evidence that sheds light on this issue. The main purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of various types of school expenditures (i.e. operating, minor capital, and major capital expenditures) on the short-and long-term educational achievement of students. This paper also looks at various channels (i.e. class size, attendance, discipline, and teachers' compensation) through which each type of expenditure could affect the performance of students. I use a dynamic regression discontinuity design that relies upon the exogenous variation in public school funding in Ohio that is created by marginally approved or failed local referenda to fund school districts. I find that only one type of expenditure, the approval of additional operating expenditures, has a positive effect in the short-term on the math proficiency of students subject to Ohio high school graduation tests, i.e. about 0.033 standard deviations (0.27 percentage points) for every additional $1,000 extra per pupil operating expenditure. I also find that the subsequent increase in the average expenditure on instructional staff is the only channel that can explain this effect. I do not find any long-term effect for any type of school expenditures.

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