Is State Tax Policy Associated With State‐Level COVID ‐19 Restrictions?
研究发现，更依赖消费税收入的州，其居家令、餐馆和酒吧关闭等疫情限制措施的持续时间更短，表明税收结构可能无意中影响了公共卫生决策。
ABSTRACT During the COVID‐19 pandemic, states imposed restrictions intended to slow the spread of the virus. We investigate whether states' reliance on consumption tax revenue, relative to other tax revenue sources, is associated with the duration of COVID‐19 mobility restrictions. We find that states that are more dependent on consumption taxes experienced shorter durations of stay‐at‐home orders, restaurant closures, and bar closures. We conduct a series of analyses to mitigate concerns that state‐level political preferences and biases may be influencing our findings. Our findings suggest that anticipated shortfalls in consumption tax revenue may have shaped public health responses, consistent with tax system structures relating, unintentionally, to crisis management decisions.