Harvey S. Rosen

"In an experiment in Illinois, members of a randomly selected group of unemployed individuals were offered a bonus of $500 if they found a job within 11 weeks and kept that job for four months. On average, people who were offered the bonus received UI for one week less than the control group, and the program saved more on UI benefits than it spent on bonuses."

"Peoples views on how the government should conduct its financial operations are heavily influenced by their political philosophies."

"In this country, the number of individuals on the government payroll certainly underestimates the importance of government."

"It may be worthwhile to spend a few million dollars to determine the efficacy of program that would involve spending billions of dollars."

"A social welfare function is simply a statement of how societys well-being relates to the well- being of its members."

"Only empirical work - analysis based on observation and experience as opposed to theory - can answer the question of how labor force behavior is affected by changes in the tax system. Even intense armchair speculation on this matter must be regarded with considerable skepticism."

"Some argue that an income tax is unfair because it taxes capital income twice: once when the original income is earned, and again when the investment produces a return."

"Government grows because low-income individuals use the political system to redistribute income toward themselves."

"A second justification for corporate taxation is that the corporation receives a number of special privileges from society, the most important of which is limited liability of the stockholders. The corporation tax can be viewed as a user fee for this benefit."

"The mere ability to postpone taxes may not seem all that important, but its consequences are enormous."

"During the 1980s, the top statutory marginal income tax rate in the United States fell from 70 percent to 28 percent."

"The First Welfare Theorem holds only if all consumers and firms are price takers. If some individuals or firms are price makers (they have the power to affect prices), then the allocation of resources will generally be inefficient."