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- Winter 2014
- Article
Labor Regulations and European Venture Capital
By: Ant Bozkaya and William R. Kerr
European nations substitute between employment protection regulations and labor market expenditures (e.g., unemployment insurance benefits) for providing worker insurance. Employment regulations more directly tax firms making frequent labor adjustments than other labor... 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
- September 2014
- Article
Metropolitan Blueprints of Colonial Taxation? Lessons from Fiscal Capacity Building in British and French Africa, 1880-1940
By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg
The historical and social science literature is divided about the importance of metropolitan blueprints of colonial rule for the development of colonial states. We exploit historical records of colonial state finances to explore the importance of metropolitan identity... View Details
Keywords: Colonial Administration; Quantitative Sources; Governance; Money; Taxation; Trade; History; Africa
- July–August 2014
- Article
Obamacare Rules Pose Challenges for S Corp Owners
By: Josh Baron, Steve Salley and Judith L. Walsh
The article offers information financial impacts of tax by the U.S. Affordable Care Act (ACA) applied in January 2013 on family business shareholders and owners of S Corp. It discusses suggestions in tax planning to equalize tax burden including establishing family... View Details
- June 2014 (Revised April 2015)
- Background Note
Affordable Housing and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits in the United States
By: Arthur I Segel and Nicolas P. Retsinas
This background note explores the basic themes surrounding the government's approach to providing housing: namely its shift from a supplier and builder of affordable housing to an approach that focuses on demand-side solutions and indirect subsidies to private... View Details
- 2014
- Chapter
Who Uses the Roth 401(k), and How Do They Use It?
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Using administrative data from twelve companies that added a Roth 401(k) option between 2006 and 2010, we describe the characteristics of Roth contributions. Approximately one year after the Roth is introduced, 9% of 401(k) participants have positive Roth balances.... View Details
- May 2014
- Article
Representative Evidence on Lying Costs
By: Johannes Abeler, Anke Becker and Armin Falk
A central assumption in economics is that people misreport their private information if this is to their material benefit. Several recent models depart from this assumption and posit that some people do not lie or at least do not lie maximally. These models invoke many... View Details
- 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
Instructors may also obtain a Teaching... View Details
- February 2014 (Revised August 2015)
- Case
The Estate Tax Debate
By: Matthew Weinzierl, Katrina Flanagan and Valerie Galinskaya
Per dollar of revenue, no tax policy generates more sound and fury than the taxation of estates. To supporters, the tax is a break on the concentration of wealth and power and an easy way to fund redistribution. To opponents, the tax is an unjust punishment of the... View Details
- December 2013 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
Breaking Bad (the Rules): Argentina Defaults, Inflates (and Grows), 1997–2015
By: Rafael Di Tella and Fernanda Miguel
In late October 2011, after losing 1 billion of dollar reserves in one month, the Argentine government began imposing a series of currency controls, limiting the ability to buy foreign currency. As of October 2011, Argentina's tax collection agency AFIP had been... View Details
- November 2013 (Revised December 2013)
- Case
Endeavor: Miami Heats Up
By: William A. Sahlman, Ramana Nanda, David Lane and Lisa Mazzanti
Endeavor Global was a nonprofit that for 15 years had worked to nurture entrepreneurship in emerging markets by selecting local high-impact entrepreneurs for mentoring and aid in scaling up their businesses from committed local business leaders. In summer 2012,... View Details
Keywords: Social Enterprise; Entrepreneurs; Scaling; Emerging Market Entrepreneurship; Not For Profit; Entrepreneurial Finance; Mentoring; Business Networks; Hybrid Nonprofit Funding; Mission and Purpose; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Problems and Challenges; Finance; Miami
- November 2013 (Revised February 2016)
- Case
A Long, Bumpy and Unfinished Road: Education Reform in Memphis, Tennessee
By: Allen Grossman, J. Puckett and Nithya Vaduganathan
In 2010 the Memphis City School District merged with the neighboring Shelby County School system under the supervision of a single board of education and superintendent. It promised much more than just administrative synergies—it was an opportunity to change a... View Details
- 2013
- Government Testimony
American Competitiveness Worldwide: Impacts on Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs
The Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access held a hearing titled, "American Competitiveness Worldwide: Impacts on Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs." Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter spoke at the hearing,... View Details
- Summer 2013
- Other Article
The Roots of Our Tax Debates
Our fiscal debates are endlessly frustrating. The outlines of a compromise seem clear, yet both sides remain incapable of agreement. But is the proper balance between spending less and taxing more really so obvious? A look at what underlies the political wars over... View Details
- June 2013 (Revised February 2014)
- Case
FanMode: Launching a Global Sports Venture
By: Shikhar Ghosh, William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell
Neven Murugan is developing FanMode, an app that allows sports fans all over the world to broadcast their reactions in real time into stadiums where their team is playing. It also provides social networking across sports fans. The company is growing, and its founders... View Details
- June 2013 (Revised July 2017)
- Case
Angus Cartwright IV
By: Kenneth J. Hatten, William J. Poorvu, Howard H. Stevenson, Arthur I Segel and John H. Vogel, Jr.
Judy and John DeRight, looking to diversify their investment portfolios, have retained Angus Cartwright, Jr. to identify prospective real estate acquisitions. Mr. Cartwright has four potential properties that he feels merit an in-depth financial analysis. The case... View Details
- 2017
- Working Paper
Innovation, Reallocation and Growth
By: Daron Acemoglu, Ufuk Akcigit, Harun Alp, Nicholas Bloom and William R. Kerr
We build a model of firm-level innovation, productivity growth, and reallocation featuring endogenous entry and exit. A new and central economic force is the selection between high- and low-type firms, which differ in terms of their innovative capacity. We estimate the... View Details
- 1 Apr 2013
- Interview
Restoring U.S. Competitiveness: Professor Michael Porter in an interview with Charlie Rose
"There is an historic opportunity right now for business and government to work together [to restore U.S. competitiveness]." Professor Porter discusses the eight federal policy priorities that business leaders and policymakers, liberals and conservatives agree will... View Details
- March 2013
- Book Review
Book Review of 'From Optimal Tax Theory to Tax Policy' by Robin Boadway
- February 2013
- Teaching Note
Australia: Commodities and Competitiveness (TN)
By: Laura Alfaro, Richard H.K. Vietor and Hilary White
For the past few decades, Australia has dealt with the benefits and costs of repeated mining booms—inflation, a housing bubble, a current account deficit and growing dependence on China. Between 1996 and 2007, however, Australia had most of these issues under control... View Details