How much equity does the government hold?
By: Alan J. Auerbach.
Contributors: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10291; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10291.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Revenue -- Econometric models.; Government securities -- Econometric models.; Stock exchanges -- Econometric models.
Description: "A central point in the recent debate about Social Security in the United States has been the extent to which the federal government should take significant positions in the equity market.  But, as this paper shows, the government already has a much more significant, if implicit position in the U.S.  equity market through its claim to future tax revenues.  Using estimates of the sensitivity of federal tax revenues to stock market returns, I calculate the implicit equity position of the federal government, defined as the equity position that would be as sensitive to the stock market as the present value of federal revenues.  Although standard errors are large, point estimates indicate that the implicit federal equity position exceeds the size of the stock market itself, a result that is consistent with the fact that revenues from all sources, not just taxes on corporate source income, are responsive to stock market returns"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Also available in print.
Includes bibliographical references.
Title from PDF file as viewed on 1/25/2005.
System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.