Steven M Karceski

University of Washington Seattle | UW · Department of Sociology

This paper explores the determinants of carbon taxation by focusing on recent efforts to tax carbon in Washington State. The paper identifies citizen demand, energy interests, and tax structure as possible factors in the emergence of carbon taxation. Washington has relatively high demand for climate action, and is unique with respect to its high re...

The state of Washington saw a “blue wave” in the November 2018 midterm elections. Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell was reelected with 58.4% of the vote. In the House of Representative elections, Democrats snatched the 8th Congressional district from Republicans. And yet, the carbon tax initiative (I-1631) lost, securing only 43.5% of the vote. A n...

We investigate the relationship between economic development and the growth of the state by testing Wagner's Law. We begin with a general test, and find it does not hold in all cases: it breaks down at higher levels of development and in more recent time periods. This suggests that Wagner's law has specific scope conditions, beyond which states do...

In this paper we explore different perspectives on quality of government, discuss the implications of each for taxation, and provide a history of exemplary cases over time from each perspective.

This essay briefly summarizes recent work and suggests future directions in the study of taxation. We analyze the determinants of total tax revenue, tax structure, tax administration, and the relationship between taxation and spending. In the section on total tax revenue, we look at the effects of democracy, debates a possible ceiling on total reve...

This study is the first of its kind to utilize longitudinal, nationally representative panel data from the United States to assess the relationship between exposure to air pollution and reports of psychological distress. Using annual-average measures of air pollution in respondents' census blocks of residence we find that over the period 1999–2011...

This review uses theories of political economy to provide an analytical history of systems of taxation, focusing on the determinants of total tax revenue, tax structure, and tax administration. We show that most premodern states extracted very little revenue and that total revenue increased substantially in the nineteenth century, and we explore th...