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17 Feb 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Preference Heterogeneity and Optimal Capital Income Taxation

Keywords: by Mikhail Golosov, Maxim Troshkin, Aleh Tsyvinski & Matthew Weinzierl

29 Jun 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Trade Credit and Taxes

Keywords: by Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley & James R. Hines

August 2005
Background Note

Note on International Tax Regimes

By: Mihir A. Desai, Mark Veblen and Kathleen Luchs

Provides a framework for understanding different types of international tax regimes. Examines how alternative tax regimes tax the foreign income of their citizens (including corporate citizens); how tax regimes define foreign and domestic income; and how foreign tax... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Earnings Management; Nationality; Framework; Taxation; Profit; Globalization; Credit; United States

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January 2013
Article

Preference Heterogeneity and Optimal Capital Income Taxation

By: Mikhail Golosov, Maxim Troshkin, Aleh Tsyvinski and Matthew Weinzierl

We examine a prominent justification for capital income taxation: goods preferred by those with high ability ought to be taxed. In an environment where commodity taxes are allowed to be nonlinear functions of income and consumption, we derive an analytical expression... View Details

Keywords: Taxation

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07 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Debate over Taxing Foreign Profits

income taxes paid, up to the U.S. statutory rate. In effect, this means that Cummins will ultimately pay a total of the U.S. statutory rate on its overseas activities in lower View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

22 Jun 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Surprising Power of Age-Dependent Taxes

Keywords: by Matthew Weinzierl

February 2022
Article

Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century

By: Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas and Stefanie Stantcheva

This paper studies the effect of corporate and personal taxes on innovation in the United States over the twentieth century. We build a panel of the universe of inventors who patent since 1920, and a historical state-level corporate tax database with corporate tax... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Income Taxes; Corporate Taxation; Firms; Inventors; State Taxation; Business Taxation; R＆D Tax Credits; Taxation; Innovation and Invention; History; United States

November 2006
Background Note

U.S. Taxation of Foreign-Source Corporate Income

By: Henry B. Reiling

Identifies several of the problems and policy choices associated with taxing foreign-source income. Examples are given of the practical after-tax effects of the major alternatives. Foreign tax credit and "tax haven" based business activities receive special attention.... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Credit; Policy; Taxation; Problems and Challenges; United States

2019
Working Paper

Thinking Outside the Box (12): The Benefits of Increased Transparency in Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance for the 180 Million Insured

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman

Economists have long noted that the tax exclusion of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) caused workers to purchase health plans that differ in price and other characteristics from those they would otherwise choose for themselves. We explore the short-term and long-term... View Details

Keywords: After-tax Income; Consumer-driven Health Care; Health Care Costs; Health Insurance; Income Inequality; Tax Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Insurance; Income; Equality and Inequality; Taxation; Policy; United States

July–August 2012
Article

A Better Way to Tax U.S. Businesses

By: Mihir Desai

The article argues that U.S. taxation reform should reduce corporate taxes, incorporate an awareness of the global marketplace, and generate revenue-neutral incentives for innovation. According to the article, a reduction in corporate tax rates would be offset by a tax... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Taxation; Globalization; Labor; Innovation and Invention; United States

October 2011
Article

The Surprising Power of Age-Dependent Taxes

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl

This article provides a new, empirically driven application of the dynamic Mirrleesian framework by studying a feasible and potentially powerful tax reform: age-dependent labor income taxation. I show analytically how age dependence improves policy on both the... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Policy; Age; Income; Mathematical Methods; Welfare; United States

1979
Article

Approximating the Efficiency Gain of Tax Reforms

By: Jerry R. Green and Eytan Sheshinski

Proper analysis of tax reform requires evaluation of the welfare effects induced by a change from one tax system to another. We present two methods for estimating these changes using only local information pertaining to an initial equilibrium with distortive taxes. It... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Change; Analysis

2020
Working Paper

Cutting the Gordian Knot of Employee Health Care Benefits and Costs: A Corporate Model Built on Employee Choice

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman

The U.S. employer-based health insurance tax exclusion created a system of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) with limited insurance choices and transparency that may lock employed households into health plans that are costlier or different from those they prefer to... View Details

Keywords: After-tax Income; Consumer-driven Health Care; Health Care Costs; Health Insurance; Income Inequality; Tax Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Insurance; Employees; Income; Taxation; Policy; United States

SSRN

30 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

All Eyes on Slovakia’s Flat Tax

it aim to do, and why can it be controversial? Vincent Dessain: A flat tax is as an income tax; it basically applies the same rate of tax to everyone and to each component of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

20 Dec 2006
Op-Ed

Investors Hurt by Dual-Track Tax Reporting

developments. Imagine if you were allowed to represent your income on your tax forms and on your mortgage application differently. In a moment of weakness, you might portray your economic situation in two... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai

September 2019 (Revised May 2020)
Supplement

Keroche (C): The Excise Tax Increase

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pippa Tubman Armerding

This case discusses the Kenyan government’s decision to increase excise taxes on wines in 2007. The tax increase would cause an average increase in price of 367% on Keroche’s fortified wines. Meanwhile, Keroche’s competitor EABL had effectively lobbied the government... View Details

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18 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

Time to Rethink the Corporate Tax System?

compliance function to being a profit center. The ratio of corporate taxes to GDP declined through the late 1990s even during an economic expansion. There has been a growing disconnect between the income... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

29 Aug 2022
Op-Ed

Income Inequality Is Rising. Are We Even Measuring It Correctly?

population, such as by raising income taxes for top-earners. Our findings suggest that moving beyond the overall concentration of inequality as reflected in the Gini coefficient may be fruitful in both... View Details

Keywords: by Jon M. Jachimowicz, Kristin Blesch, and Oliver P. Hauser

February 2010
Article

The Optimal Taxation of Height: A Case Study of Utilitarian Income Redistribution

By: N. Gregory Mankiw and Matthew C. Weinzierl

Should the income tax include a credit for short taxpayers and a surcharge for tall ones? The standard Utilitarian framework for tax analysis answers this question in the affirmative. Moreover, a plausible parameterization using data on height and wages implies a... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Wages; Personal Characteristics