Publications

2020
Working Paper

Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation

By: Benjami Lockwood, Afras Y. 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

Keywords: Optimal Taxation; Robust Optimization; Taxation; Income; Policy; Design

08 Sep 2009
Research & Ideas

The Height Tax, and Other New Ways to Think about Taxation

Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw, Weinzierl coauthored the HBS working paper "The Optimal Taxation of Height: A Case Study of Utilitarian Income Redistribution" [PDF]. The main framework economists use to think through View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Article

How Elastic Are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments

By: Ilyana Kuziemko, Michael I. Norton, Emmanuel Saez and Stefanie Stantcheva

We analyze randomized online survey experiments providing interactive, customized information on U.S. income inequality, the link between top income tax rates and economic growth, and the estate tax. The treatment has large effects on views about inequality but only... View Details

Keywords: Income; Taxation; Economic Growth; United States

2018
Working Paper

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 20th century. We use three new datasets: a panel of the universe of inventors who patent since 1920; a dataset of the employment, location, and patents of firms... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Innovation and Invention; History; United States

February 2014 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Should Corporate Profits Be Taxed? (A)

By: Matthew Weinzierl, Katrina Flanagan and Michael Cianellli

Taxing corporations is popular, but why? Corporations do not bear the burden of taxes, people do, and the incidence of the corporate income tax burden is likely to be far different from what many of its supporters assume.
Instructors may also obtain a Teaching... View Details

Keywords: Economic Versus Statutory Incidence; Basics Of Corporate Taxation; Business Ventures; Taxation; Profit

Educators

Purchase

2008
Working Paper

Just Keep My Money! Supporting Tax-time Savings with U.S. Savings Bonds

By: Peter Tufano

This paper reports the results of a 2007 experiment testing if specific process simplification can foster increased take-up rates for savings products, particularly by low-to-moderate income (LMI) households. Tax refund recipients at certain H&R Block tax preparation... View Details

Keywords: Household; Income; Bonds; Investment; Personal Finance; Saving; Taxation; United States

2016
Chapter

Fiscal Issues for Cross-Border Natural Resource Projects

By: Joseph Bell and Jasmina Chauvin

Projects that cross national boundaries give rise to the complex question of how the project's taxable income should be allocated among the national entities. This chapter utilizes a hypothetical mining project with the mine and infrastructure in two different... View Details

Keywords: Extractive Industries; Business ＆ Government Relations; Transfer Pricing; Taxation; Infrastructure; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Business and Government Relations; Mining Industry

June 2004 (Revised March 2005)
Background Note

Question of LIFO or FIFO, The; Which Is Preferable?

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Sharon M. Bruns

Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of alternative inventory flow assumptions allowed in the United States. A single exhibit shows that in Year 2, a company using LIFO in Year 1 could report higher net income by switching to FIFO at a cost of higher income... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Taxation; Revenue

Educators

Purchase

05 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

Reinventing the Dowdy Savings Bond

year comes in the form of an income tax refund. In 2001, the IRS returned $78 billion to families making less than $30,000 annually, for an average return of $1,546 per filer. To Tufano, that check suggested... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Banking; Financial Services

19 Aug 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Optimal Taxation in Theory and Practice

Keywords: by N. Gregory Mankiw, Matthew Weinzierl & Danny Yagan

15 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 15, 2018

Income Inequality By: Nallareddy, Suresh, Ethan Rouen, and Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato Abstract—This paper studies the effects of corporate tax changes on income inequality.... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

December 2008
Case

Merrimack Tractors and Mowers: LIFO or FIFO?

By: William J. Bruns Jr., Sharon Bruns and Susan S. Hameling

At Merrimack Tractors and Mowers in 2008, product manufacturing costs are increasing faster than competitors' costs, and as a result earnings are likely to fall below those reported in 2007. The company president and the company controller have discussed this problem,... View Details

Keywords: International; Financial; Reporting; Standards; Inventory; Business Ethics; Assets; Valuation; Ethics; Taxation; Financial Reporting; Manufacturing Industry

Educators

Purchase

October 2004
Article

Are Politicians Really Paid Like Bureaucrats?

By: Rafael Di Tella and Raymond Fisman

We provide the first empirical analysis of gubernatorial pay. Using U.S. data for 1950-90, we document substantial variation in the wages of politicians, both across states and overtime. Gubernatorial wages respond to changes in state income per capita and taxes. We... View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; Compensation and Benefits

13 Jul 2012
Working Paper Summaries

De Gustibus non est Taxandum: Theory and Evidence on Preference Heterogeneity and Redistribution

Keywords: by Benjamin Lockwood & Matthew Weinzierl

January 2009
Journal Article

The Fiscal Impact of High-skilled Emigration: Flows of Indians to the U.S.

By: Mihir Desai, D. Kapur, J. McHale and K Rogers

Easing immigration restrictions for the highly skilled in developed countries portends a future of increased human capital outflows from developing countries. The myriad consequences of these developments for developing countries include the direct loss of the fiscal... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Diasporas; Developing Countries and Economies; Taxation; Compensation and Benefits; Human Capital; Mathematical Methods; India; United States

2016
Working Paper

Popular Acceptance of Inequality Due to Innate Brute Luck and Support for Classical Benefit-Based Taxation

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl

U.S. survey respondents' views on distributive justice are shown to differ in two specific, related ways from what is conventionally assumed in modern optimal tax research. A large share of respondents, and in some cases a large majority, resist the full equalization... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Attitudes; Taxation; Theory; United States