Integrating Expenditure and Tax Decisions: The Marginal Cost of Funds and the Marginal Benefit of Projects

Joel Slemrod and Shlomo Yitzhaki

No 8196, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper seeks to clarify the extent to which the rule for providing public goods ought to correct for the distortionary cost of raising funds. We argue that, in evaluating public projects, the marginal cost of funds (MCF) concept must be supplemented by a symmetrical concept, which we label the marginal benefit of public projects, or MBP, which indicates the value to individuals of the dollars spent. Each of these concepts can be decomposed into two separate components, one reflecting efficiency and the other characterizing the distributional impact of the project itself or its financing. We conclude that efficiency of the financing cannot be ignored, that distributional considerations are also relevant, and that the availability and optimality of tax instruments is critical for evaluating the appropriateness of proceeding with a public good-cum financing project. However, one can construct special cases, as in Kaplow (1996), where the simple cost-benefit criterion applies.

JEL-codes: H21 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-03
Note: PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (62)

Published as Slemrod, Joel and Shlomo Yitzhaki. "Integrating Expenditure And Tax Decisions: The Marginal Cost Of Funds And The Marginal Benefit Of Projects," National Tax Journal, 2001, v54(2,Jun), 189-201.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w8196.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Integrating Expenditure and Tax Decisions: The Marginal Cost of Funds and the Marginal Benefit of Projects (2001)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8196

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w8196

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().