UC San Diego

Governments below the federal level provide many of the services with which citizens regularly interact. Education in the United States is primarily a local service and property taxes are a major source of education funding. This dissertation focuses on the local labor market for teachers and citizen responses to changes in education funding through property taxes. Chapter 1 studies how local labor market conditions affect who becomes a teacher. Chapter 2 investigates homeowner and community responses to changes in property taxes. Chapter 3 examines the role of property taxes in compensating homeowners for negative externalities generated by industrial facilities and how local control over tax revenue affects a community’s willingness to accept externality-generating facilities.