IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ntj/journl/v55y2002i2p223-238.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who Pays and Who Benefits? Examining the Distributional Consequences of the Georgia Lottery for Education

Author

Listed:
  • Rubenstein, Ross
  • Scafidi, Benjamin

Abstract

This paper examines the incidence of the implicit lottery tax and the distribution of benefits from lottery-funded programs in Georgia. Georgia's lottery is unique in that revenues are earmarked for three educational programs--HOPE College Scholarships, universal pre-kindergarten, and education infrastructure. We estimate separate models of household-level lottery purchases and of household benefits from lottery-funded programs. Our estimates suggest that lower income and non–white households tend to have higher purchases of lottery products while receiving lower benefits, as compared to higher income and white households. Benefits of HOPE Scholarships, in particular, accrue disproportionately to higher income and more educated households.

Suggested Citation

  • Rubenstein, Ross & Scafidi, Benjamin, 2002. "Who Pays and Who Benefits? Examining the Distributional Consequences of the Georgia Lottery for Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 55(2), pages 223-238, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:55:y:2002:i:2:p:223-238
    DOI: 10.17310/ntj.2002.2.02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2002.2.02
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2002.2.02
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17310/ntj.2002.2.02?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stranahan, Harriet & Borg, Mary O., 1998. "Horizontal Equity Implications of the Lottery Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 51(1), pages 71-82, March.
    2. Clotfelter, Charles T & Cook, Philip J, 1990. "On the Economics of State Lotteries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 105-119, Fall.
    3. Borg, Mary O. & Mason, Paul M., 1988. "The Budgetary Incidence of a Lottery to Support Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 41(1), pages 75-85, March.
    4. Borg, Mary O. & Mason, Paul M., 1988. "The Budgetary Incidence of a Lottery to Support Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 41(1), pages 75-85, March.
    5. Charles T. Clotfelter & Philip J. Cook, 1989. "Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number clot89-1, July.
    6. Stranahan, Harriet & Borg, Mary O., 1998. "Horizontal Equity Implications of the Lottery Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 51(n. 1), pages 71-82, March.
    7. Charles T. Clotfelter & Philip J. Cook, 1987. "Implicit Taxation in Lottery Finance," NBER Working Papers 2246, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Noel D. Campbell & Frank Smith, 2009. "Merit-Based Scholarship ``Over-Awards'' and Home Prices," Public Finance Review, , vol. 37(2), pages 198-216, March.
    2. John Charles Bradbury & Noel D. Campbell, 2003. "Local Lobbying for State Grants: Evidence from Georgia's Hope Scholarship," Public Finance Review, , vol. 31(4), pages 367-391, July.
    3. Stivender Carol O. & Gaggl Paul & Amato Louis H. & Farrow-Chestnut Tonya E., 2016. "The Impact of Education Earmarking on State-Level Lottery Sales," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(3), pages 1473-1500, September.
    4. Linda S. Ghent & Alan P. Grant, 2007. "Are Voting and Buying Behavior Consistent? Evidence from the South Carolina Education Lottery," Public Finance Review, , vol. 35(6), pages 669-688, November.
    5. Susan Dynarski, 2004. "The New Merit Aid," NBER Chapters, in: College Choices: The Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay For It, pages 63-100, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. repec:rre:publsh:v:37:y:2007:i:2:p:169-85 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Martin D. Dooley & A. Abigail Payne & A. Leslie Robb, 2009. "Merit-Aid and the Distribution of Entering Students Across Ontario Universities," Department of Economics Working Papers 2009-12, McMaster University.
    8. Ghent, Linda S. & Grant, Alan P., 2010. "The Demand for Lottery Products and Their Distributional Consequences," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(2), pages 253-268, June.
    9. A Ross Otto & Johannes C Eichstaedt, 2018. "Real-world unexpected outcomes predict city-level mood states and risk-taking behavior," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, November.
    10. Thomas A. Garrett, 2012. "The Distributional Burden of Instant Lottery Ticket Expenditures," Public Finance Review, , vol. 40(6), pages 767-788, November.
    11. Peter Calcagno & Douglas Walker & John Jackson, 2010. "Determinants of the probability and timing of commercial casino legalization in the United States," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 69-90, January.
    12. Horácio Faustino & Maria João Kaiseler & Rafael Marques, 2009. "Why Do People Buy Lottery Products?," Working Papers Department of Economics 2009/01, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    13. Dynarski, Susan, 2002. "The Consequences of Merit Aid," Working Paper Series rwp02-051, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    14. Kent Grote & Victor Matheson, 2011. "The Economics of Lotteries: An Annotated Bibliography," Working Papers 1110, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    15. Melissa Whatley, 2019. "Study Abroad Participation: An Unintended Consequence of State Merit-Aid Programs?," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(7), pages 905-930, November.
    16. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:4:y:2007:i:42:p:1-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Cho-Min Lin & Kung-Cheng Lin, 2007. "The demand for lottery expenditure in Taiwan: a quantile regression approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(42), pages 1-11.
    18. Richard A. Dunn & Michael A. Trousdale, 2015. "Estimating the Demand for Lottery Gambling," Public Finance Review, , vol. 43(6), pages 691-716, November.
    19. repec:max:cprpbr:25 is not listed on IDEAS

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rubenstein, Ross & Scafidi, Benjamin, 2002. "Who Pays and Who Benefits? Examining the Distributional Consequences of the Georgia Lottery for Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 55(N. 2), pages 223-238, June.
    2. Harriet A. Stranahan & Mary O. Borg, 2004. "Some Futures are Brighter than Others: the Net Benefits Received by Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Recipients," Public Finance Review, , vol. 32(1), pages 105-126, January.
    3. Donald I. Price & E. Shawn Novak, 2000. "The Income Redistribution Effects of Texas State Lottery Games," Public Finance Review, , vol. 28(1), pages 82-92, January.
    4. Humphreys, Brad & Perez, Levi, 2011. "Lottery Participants and Revenues: An International Survey of Economic Research on Lotteries," Working Papers 2011-17, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    5. Cho-Min Lin & Kung-Cheng Lin, 2007. "The demand for lottery expenditure in Taiwan: a quantile regression approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(42), pages 1-11.
    6. David Giacopassi & Mark W. Nichols & B. Grant Stitt, 2006. "Voting for a Lottery," Public Finance Review, , vol. 34(1), pages 80-100, January.
    7. Whitney, Marilyn D., 1991. "Factors Affecting The Demand For California Lottery Tickets," Working Papers 225863, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    8. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:4:y:2007:i:42:p:1-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Levi Pérez & Brad R. Humphreys, 2011. "The Income Elasticity of Lottery: New Evidence from Micro Data," Public Finance Review, , vol. 39(4), pages 551-570, July.
    10. Zhiming Cheng & Russell Smyth & Gong Sun, 2013. "Participation and Expenditure of Rural-Urban Migrants in the Illegal Lottery in China," Monash Economics Working Papers 24-13, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    11. Richard B. Whitaker, 2007. "State Lotteries and Agency Costs: Hidden Costs to Nonparticipants," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(3), pages 533-544, July.
    12. Harriet A. Stranahan & Mary O. Borg, 1998. "Separating the Decisions of Lottery Expenditures and Participation: a Truncated Tobit Approach," Public Finance Review, , vol. 26(2), pages 99-117, March.
    13. Glenn P. Jenkins & Chun-Yan Kuo, 2004. "The Taxation and Regulation of Casino’s and Games of Chance in the Dominican Republic," Development Discussion Papers 2004-07, JDI Executive Programs.
    14. Brown, Ryan P. & Rork, Jonathan C., 2005. "Copycat gaming: A spatial analysis of state lottery structure," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 795-807, November.
    15. William C. Rivenbark, 1998. "The Tax Incidence of Casino Gaming in Mississippi," Public Finance Review, , vol. 26(6), pages 583-598, November.
    16. Ghent, Linda S. & Grant, Alan P., 2010. "The Demand for Lottery Products and Their Distributional Consequences," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(2), pages 253-268, June.
    17. Giebeler, Constanze & Rebeggiani, Luca, 2019. "Who Loves to Gamble? Socio-Economic Factors Determining Gambling Behaviour in Germany," MPRA Paper 94735, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Alexander Matros & Wooyoung Lim & Theodore Turocy, 2009. "Raising Revenue With Raffles: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment," Working Paper 377, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Feb 2009.
    19. Anthony C. Krautmann & James E. Ciecka, 1993. "When Are State Lotteries a Good Bet?," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 157-164, Spring.
    20. Antonio Cabrales & Haydée Lugo, 2011. "An impure public good model with lotteries in large grou," Documentos de Trabajo del ICAE 2011-05, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico.
    21. Andrew C. Worthington, 2001. "Implicit Finance in Gambling Expenditures: Australian Evidence on Socioeconomic and Demographic Tax Incidence," Public Finance Review, , vol. 29(4), pages 326-342, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:55:y:2002:i:2:p:223-238. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The University of Chicago Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ntanet.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.