Accomplishments
Well, today I went to the courthouse and figured out how to change my voter registration to Greensboro. That's handy, as I don't really feel like driving back to Chapel Hill to vote. When that day comes, McCain is seeming less and less like he knows what he's doing, so I'll probably be voting for Obama.
In other news, Ken has informed me that my Literature Review revisions pass! The paper is done! It's kind of strange not to have that hanging over my head, I'm not sure I entirely believe it yet. This means I'll be "graduating" with a Masters degree in December, only 2 years behind most of the people I entered the program with. Of course, since I'm in the Ph.D. program, it doesn't really mean anything other than that I can focus on my dissertation (which is one reason I haven't felt rushed about the lit review). Still, yay!
Here is a link to my lit review, by the way. It may be a bit dry, so here's a summary:
I examine the literature on the demand for recreational goods (electronics, reading material, movies, vacations, etc) and leisure time (as opposed to time spent working) to determine the policy implications of taxing recreational goods. Overall, I find that taxing recreation is progressive (costs rich people proportionately more than poor people) and is likely to motivate people to work more, both of which are desirable from a policy maker's perspective. However, demand for recreation is also fairly elastic, which means that a little bit of tax causes people to cut back a lot on quantity, making it a relatively poor source of revenue. So it really depends upon what the policy objective is.
In other news, Ken has informed me that my Literature Review revisions pass! The paper is done! It's kind of strange not to have that hanging over my head, I'm not sure I entirely believe it yet. This means I'll be "graduating" with a Masters degree in December, only 2 years behind most of the people I entered the program with. Of course, since I'm in the Ph.D. program, it doesn't really mean anything other than that I can focus on my dissertation (which is one reason I haven't felt rushed about the lit review). Still, yay!
Here is a link to my lit review, by the way. It may be a bit dry, so here's a summary:
I examine the literature on the demand for recreational goods (electronics, reading material, movies, vacations, etc) and leisure time (as opposed to time spent working) to determine the policy implications of taxing recreational goods. Overall, I find that taxing recreation is progressive (costs rich people proportionately more than poor people) and is likely to motivate people to work more, both of which are desirable from a policy maker's perspective. However, demand for recreation is also fairly elastic, which means that a little bit of tax causes people to cut back a lot on quantity, making it a relatively poor source of revenue. So it really depends upon what the policy objective is.