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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(625)
- News (140)
- Research (344)
- Events (2)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (78)
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- Article
No Taxation Without Information: Deterrence and Self-Enforcement in the Value Added Tax
By: Dina Pomeranz
Claims that the VAT facilitates tax enforcement by generating paper trails on transactions between firms contributed to widespread VAT adoption worldwide, but there is surprisingly little evidence. This paper analyzes the role of third-party information for VAT... View Details
Pomeranz, Dina. "No Taxation Without Information: Deterrence and Self-Enforcement in the Value Added Tax." American Economic Review 105, no. 8 (August 2015): 2539–2569. (Featured by CNN, Vox.eu, World Bank News, Bloomberg News and others.)
- 2021
- Article
Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation
By: Benjamin B. Lockwood, Afras Sial and Matthew C. Weinzierl
Economists typically check the robustness of their results by comparing them across plausible ranges of parameter values and model structures. A preferable approach to robustness—for the purposes of policymaking and evaluation—is to design policy that takes these... View Details
Lockwood, Benjamin B., Afras Sial, and Matthew C. Weinzierl. "Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation." Tax Policy and the Economy 35 (2021).
- December 2023
- Article
When Should the Off-Grid Sun Shine at Night? Optimum Renewable Generation and Energy Storage Investments
By: Christian Kaps, Simone Marinesi and Serguei Netessine
Globally, 1.5 billion people live off the grid, their only access to electricity often limited to operationally-expensive fossil fuel generators. Solar power has risen as a sustainable and less costly option, but its generation is variable during the day and... View Details
Kaps, Christian, Simone Marinesi, and Serguei Netessine. "When Should the Off-Grid Sun Shine at Night? Optimum Renewable Generation and Energy Storage Investments." Management Science 69, no. 12 (December 2023): 7633–7650.
- 15 Jan 2013
- Working Paper Summaries
The Promise of Positive Optimal Taxation: A Generalized Theory Calibrated to Survey Evidence on Normative Preferences Explains Puzzling Features of Policy
Keywords: by Matthew Weinzierl
- February 2019 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
Electric Car Wars, 2018
By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock
Electric cars had long been championed by environmentalists as a superior solution to the internal combustion engine (ICE), but, despite large government incentives and strong pioneering efforts by a few automakers over the years, electric and hybrid cars and light... View Details
Keywords: Electric Vehicle; Electric Vehicles; Electricity; Electric Motors; Electric Power Generation; Electricity Usage; Electricity Distribution; Internal Combustion Vehicle; Auto Manufacturing; Automobile Manufacturing; Automotive Industry; Tesla; General Motors; History; Nissan; Innovation; Batteries; Battery; Subsidies; Government Initiatives; Government Incentives; Political Issues; Energy Generation; Production; Infrastructure; Innovation and Invention; Government Legislation; Global Range; Business History; Auto Industry; China
Wells, John R., and Benjamin Weinstock. "Electric Car Wars, 2018." Harvard Business School Case 719-470, February 2019. (Revised May 2021.)
- 2023
- Working Paper
Cost-Efficient Decarbonization of Portland Cement Production
By: Gunther Glenk, Anton Kelnhofer, Rebecca Meier and Stefan Reichelstein
Accounting for nearly 8% of global annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the cement industry is considered difficult to decarbonize. While a sizeable number of abatement levers for Portland cement production is becoming technologically ready for deployment, many are... View Details
Keywords: Decarbonization; Carbon Abatement; Carbon Accounting; Carbon Emissions; Carbon Regulation; Carbon Tax; Net-zero Emissions; Management; Environmental Management; Sustainable Cities; Accounting; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Environmental Accounting; Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Construction Industry; Steel Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Real Estate Industry; Consulting Industry; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Utilities Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Europe; North America; South America; Africa; Asia
Glenk, Gunther, Anton Kelnhofer, Rebecca Meier, and Stefan Reichelstein. "Cost-Efficient Decarbonization of Portland Cement Production." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-025, October 2023. (TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency Working Paper Series, No. 120, May 2023.)
- 17 Aug 2021
- Op-Ed
Dispensing Justice: The Case for Legalizing Cannabis Nationally
cannabis federally would shrink the illicit market and help the legal market grow, within the ambit of regulations and informed by research, thereby also generating tax revenue. What is popular is not always... View Details
Keywords: by Ashish Nanda and Tabatha Robinson
- 08 Sep 2009
- Research & Ideas
The Height Tax, and Other New Ways to Think about Taxation
government taxes incomes, it discourages people from working as hard as they otherwise would have worked. This is what generates the classic tradeoff in tax policy: The more... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
- 2022
- Working Paper
Multinationals and Varieties of Capitalism: When U.S. Giants Stepped into the Swiss Coordinated Labor Market in the 1950s
By: Sabine Pitteloud
This working paper investigates unintended consequences of U.S. FDI in Switzerland in the 1950s-1960s: the increased competition that U.S. firms generated within the national labor market and the challenge their hiring practices constituted for the institutional... View Details
Keywords: Multinationals; Capitalism; Business & Government Relations; Foreign Direct Investment; Immigration Policy; History; Switzerland; Americanization; R&D; Labor History; Labor Market Institutions; Tax Havens; "USA,"; Business Interest Association; Lobbying; Labor and Management Relations; Business History; Multinational Firms and Management
Pitteloud, Sabine. "Multinationals and Varieties of Capitalism: When U.S. Giants Stepped into the Swiss Coordinated Labor Market in the 1950s." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-075, June 2022.
- 2010
- Working Paper
Investment Taxation and Portfolio Performance
By: Daniel B. Bergstresser and Jeffrey Pontiff
Taxes have a first-order impact on portfolio returns. Most research mistakenly assumes that portfolios command similar tax burdens, or that tax burdens are proportional to dividend yields. Portfolio strategies differ in the pace of capital gains realization. We use the... View Details
Keywords: Financial Strategy; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Taxation; Performance Evaluation
Bergstresser, Daniel B., and Jeffrey Pontiff. "Investment Taxation and Portfolio Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-084, March 2010.
- September 2006
- Article
Dynamic Scoring: A Back-of-the-Envelope Guide
By: Matthew C. Weinzierl and N. Gregory Mankiw
This paper uses the neoclassical growth model to examine the extent to which a tax cut pays for itself through higher economic growth. The model yields simple expressions for the steady-state feedback effect of a tax cut. The feedback is surprisingly large: for... View Details
Weinzierl, Matthew C., and N. Gregory Mankiw. "Dynamic Scoring: A Back-of-the-Envelope Guide." Journal of Public Economics 90, no. 8 (September 2006): 1415–1433.
- May 2017
- Case
Fresh to Table
By: Gautam Mukunda and Brooks C. Holtom
After the contentious firing of an office manager, the leadership at Fresh to Table, a software-as-a-service provider for luxury hotels and restaurants, make an unpleasant discovery. While reviewing the office manager's internal electronic communications, company... View Details
Keywords: Behavior; Resignation and Termination; Organizational Culture; Values and Beliefs; Leadership
Mukunda, Gautam, and Brooks C. Holtom. "Fresh to Table." Harvard Business School Brief Case 917-541, May 2017.
- 2025
- Working Paper
Extractive Taxation and the French Revolution
By: Tommaso Giommoni, Gabriel Loumeau and Marco Tabellini
We study the fiscal determinants of the French Revolution, exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in the salt tax—a large source of royal revenues and one of the most extractive forms of taxation of the Ancien Régime. Implementing a Regression Discontinuity... View Details
Keywords: Extractive Taxation; Regime Change; French Revolution; State Capacity; Taxation; History; Government Administration; Attitudes; Public Opinion
Giommoni, Tommaso, Gabriel Loumeau, and Marco Tabellini. "Extractive Taxation and the French Revolution." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-047, April 2025. (Featured at VoxEU.)
- November 2006 (Revised October 2007)
- Background Note
A Brief Note on Deferred Taxes: An Analysis Perspective
Provides an overview of accounting for deferred taxes. The primary objective is to provide external users with a basic understanding of deferred taxes. A simple illustrative example is provided, which is followed by a discussion of several important issues likely to be... View Details
Bradshaw, Mark T. "A Brief Note on Deferred Taxes: An Analysis Perspective." Harvard Business School Background Note 107-047, November 2006. (Revised October 2007.)
- September 2004 (Revised April 2005)
- Case
U.S. Market Framework for Gasoline, The: Individual Incentives and Societal Goals in Global Markets
By: Bruce R. Scott and Edward Murphy
Traces the role of gasoline taxes in financing U.S. highways and the use of regulations to increase fuel economy to show how and why the U.S. market framework for gasoline is so different from that in Europe. Focuses on whether the U.S. tax should be raised, as... View Details
- October 2014
- Article
The Promise of Positive Optimal Taxation: Normative Diversity and a Role for Equal Sacrifice
A prominent assumption in modern optimal tax research is that the objective of taxation is Utilitarian. I present new survey evidence that most people disagree with this assumption, preferring tax policies based at least in part on a classic alternative objective: the... View Details
Weinzierl, Matthew. "The Promise of Positive Optimal Taxation: Normative Diversity and a Role for Equal Sacrifice." Journal of Public Economics 118 (October 2014): 128–142. (Also NBER Working Paper Series, No. 18599.)
- 2012
- Working Paper
~Why Do We Redistribute so Much but Tag so Little? Normative Diversity, Equal Sacrifice and Optimal Taxation
Tagging is a free lunch in conventional optimal tax theory because it eases the classic tradeoff between efficiency and equality. But tagging is used in only limited ways in tax policy. I propose one explanation: conventional optimal tax theory has yet to capture the... View Details
Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cost; Framework; Policy; Taxation; Analytics and Data Science; Performance Efficiency; United States
Weinzierl, Matthew. "~Why Do We Redistribute so Much but Tag so Little? Normative Diversity, Equal Sacrifice and Optimal Taxation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-064, January 2012. (Revised August 2012. NBER Working Paper Series, No. 18045, August 2012)
- 2009
- Working Paper
Stretching the Inelastic Rubber: Taxation, Welfare and Lobbies in Amazonia, 1870-1910
By: Felipe Tamega Fernandes
This paper examines the effect of government intervention via taxation on domestic welfare. A case-study of Brazilian market power on rubber markets during the boom years of 1870-1910 shows that the government generated 1.3% of GDP through an export tax on rubber but... View Details
Keywords: Government Legislation; Taxation; Business and Government Relations; Welfare or Wellbeing; Rubber Industry; Brazil
Fernandes, Felipe Tamega. "Stretching the Inelastic Rubber: Taxation, Welfare and Lobbies in Amazonia, 1870-1910." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-032, October 2009.
- November 2020
- Article
Taxation in Matching Markets
By: Arnaud Dupuy, Alfred Galichon, Sonia Jaffe and Scott Duke Kominers
We analyze the effects of taxation in two-sided matching markets, i.e., markets in which all agents have heterogeneous preferences over potential partners. In matching markets, taxes can generate inefficiency on the allocative margin by changing who is matched to whom,... View Details
Dupuy, Arnaud, Alfred Galichon, Sonia Jaffe, and Scott Duke Kominers. "Taxation in Matching Markets." International Economic Review 61, no. 4 (November 2020): 1591–1634.
- 13 May 2014
- First Look
First Look: May 13
services obtained in return, reduces general anti-tax sentiment, and holds satisfaction with tax payment stable despite increased compliance with tax dues. With View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne