Mark Skidmore

Publications (3)0 Total impact

• Article: Cross-Border Shopping and the Sales Tax: A Reexamination of Food Purchases in West Virginia

  Mark Skidmore, Mehmet Serkan Tosun
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  ABSTRACT: In this paper we present new evidence of cross-border shopping in response to sales taxation. While several instructive studies provide estimates of the cross-border shopping effect, we utilize a unique opportunity to evaluate the effect of a large discrete change in sales tax policy. Using county level data on food income and sales tax data for West Virginia over the 1982-2000 period we estimate that for every one-percentage point increase in the county relative price ratio due to sales tax change, the per capita food income decreases by about 0.7 percent. Our estimates indicate that food sales fell in West Virginia border counties by about 4 percent as a result of the imposition of the 6 percent sales tax on food in 1989.
  10/2005;
• Source

  Available from: starlott.com

  Article: Do New Lottery Games Stimulate Retail Activity? Evidence from West Virginia Counties

  Mark Skidmore, Mehmet Serkan Tosun
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  ABSTRACT: In this paper we examine the impact of the lottery sales and the introduction of new lottery games on the retail activity using panel data on lottery sales, the adoption of new lottery games in West Virginia and in neighboring states, and retail income (a proxy for retail sales) for all 55 counties in West Virginia over the 1987-2001 period. Importantly, we are able to utilize changes in neighboring state lottery status to examine the potentially endogenous relationship between lottery sales and retail activity. Our findings generally show that lottery sales are positively associated with retail income, but perhaps surprisingly this positive effect is generated from interior counties and not border counties. We also find that the introduction of video lottery in several West Virginia counties has resulted in a significant increase in retail income.
  06/2005;
• Source

  Available from: SSRN

  Article: Property Value Assessment Growth Limits, Tax Base Erosion, and Regional In-Migration

  Mark Skidmore, Mehmet Serkan Tosun
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  ABSTRACT: In 1994, a limit on the growth of property values for tax purposes was imposed in Michigan. One consequence of the newly imposed assessment growth cap was an emerging differential in tax prices between potential new property owners and long-time property owners. The purpose this article is to examine the impact of this growing tax price differential on migration patterns. Using county level data on migration activity over the 1994—2006 period, the authors present evidence that differential tax prices resulting from the assessment growth cap have reduced in-migration.
  Public Finance Review 39(2):256-287.