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Between the Civil War and the Great Depression, twin revolutions swept through American business and government. In business, large corporations came to dominate entire sectors and markets. In government, new services and agencies, especially at the city and state levels, sprang up to ameliorate a broad spectrum of social problems. In The Price of Progress, R. Rudy Higgens-Evenson offers a fresh analysis of the relationship between those two revolutions. Using previously unexploited data from the annual reports of state treasurers and comptrollers, he provides a detailed, empirical assessment of the goods and services provided to citizens, as well as the resources extracted from them, by state governments during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Focusing on New York, Massachusetts, California, and Kansas, but including data on 13 other states, his comparative study suggests that the "corporate state" originated in tax policies designed to finance new and innovative government services. Business and government grew together in a surprising and complex fashion. In the late nineteenth century, services such as mental health care for the needy and free elementary education for all children created new strains on the states' old property tax systems. In order to pay for newly constructed state asylums and schools, states experimented for the first time with corporate taxation as a source of revenue, linking state revenues to the profitability of industries such as railroads and utilities. To control their tax bills, big businesses intensified lobbying efforts in state legislatures, captured important positions in state tax bureaus, and sponsored a variety of government-efficiency reform organizations. The unintended result of corporate taxation -- imposed to allow states to fulfill their responsibilities to their citizens -- was the creation of increasingly intimate ties between politicians, bureaucrats, corporate leaders, and progressive citizens. By the 1920s, a variety of "corporate states" had proliferated across the nation, each shaped by a particular mix of taxation and public services, each offering a case study in how the business of America, as President Calvin Coolidge put it, became business.

Corporate state -- United States -- History. --- Government spending policy -- United States -- States. --- Taxation -- United States -- States -- History. --- United States -- Economic conditions. --- United States -- Politics and government. --- Government spending policy --- Taxation --- Corporate state --- States. --- States --- History. --- United States --- Politics and government. --- Economic conditions. --- Corporations (Corporate state) --- Corporatism --- Corporative state --- Corporativism --- State, Corporate --- Duties --- Fee system (Taxation) --- Tax policy --- Tax reform --- Taxation, Incidence of --- Taxes --- Expenditures, Public --- Public spending policy --- Spending policy, Government --- Government policy --- Government --- History, Political --- Political science --- Syndicalism --- Fascism --- Functional representation --- Economic policy --- Finance, Public --- Full employment policies --- Unfunded mandates --- History --- Revenue --- Politics and government --- Economic conditions

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This paper provides a primer on benefit incidence analysis (BIA) for macroeconomists and a new data set on the benefit incidence of education and health spending covering 56 countries over 1960-2000, representing a significant improvement in quality and coverage over existing compilations. The paper demonstrates the usefulness of BIA in two dimensions. First, the paper finds, among other things, that overall education and health spending are poorly targeted; benefits from primary education and primary health care go disproportionately to the middle class, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, HIPCs and transition economies; but targeting has improved in the 1990s. Second, simple measures of association show that countries with a more propoor incidence of education and health spending tend to have better education and health outcomes, good governance, high per capita income, and wider accessibility to information. The paper explores policy implications of these findings.

Government spending policy. --- Government spending policy --- Public health administration --- Health administration --- Health care administration --- Health sciences administration --- Medical care --- Public health --- Health services administration --- Expenditures, Public --- Public spending policy --- Spending policy, Government --- Economic policy --- Finance, Public --- Full employment policies --- Unfunded mandates --- Evaluation. --- Administration --- Government policy --- Public Finance --- National Government Expenditures and Health --- National Government Expenditures and Education --- Government Policy --- Provision and Effects of Welfare Program --- Education: General --- National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General --- Health: General --- Public finance & taxation --- Education --- Health economics --- Education spending --- Health care spending --- Expenditure --- Health --- Chile