Topics:

Fundamental theorems of welfare economics
Theory and measurement of deadweight loss
Basic optimal commodity tax theory

Applications:

Uniform versus non-uniform taxation
Consumption in different periods
State sales tax reform

Readings:

Harvey Rosen and Ted Gayer, Public Finance (9th ed., 2010), Chapters 3, (Tools of Normative Analysis), ("Taxation and Efficiency") and 16, ("Efficient and Equitable Taxation") and Appendix pp. 556-558 ("Consumer and Producer Surplus")

Alan J. Auerbach, "Consumption Tax Options for California", Public Policy Institute of California, 2011.

Slides

Topics:

Measuring ability to pay
Optimal linear and nonlinear income taxation
Integration with optimal commodity taxation

Applications:

Income distribution and the optimal top marginal tax rate
Luxury taxes
Flat taxes

Readings:

Louis Kaplow, The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), Chapters 2, 4 and 6.

Slides

Topics:

Theory of tax incidence
Capitalization
Tax revenue vs. tax burden
Lifetime vs. annual measures
Generational accounting
Tax salience

Externalities and “Internalities”

Applications:

Sin taxes
Shift to consumption taxation
Social security

Readings:

Rosen and Gayer, Chapter 14 "Taxation and Income Distribution".

James M. Poterba, "Lifetime Incidence and the Distributional Burden of Excise Taxes" American Economic Review, May, 1989, pp. 325-330.

Alan J. Auerbach, Jagadeesh Gokhale, and Laurence J. Kotlikoff, "Using Generational Accounting to Assess Fiscal Sustainability and Generational Equity" in David Bradford, ed., Distributional Analysis of Tax Policy (Washington: American Enterprise Institute Press, 1995), pp. 181-204.

Alan J. Auerbach, "The Choice between Income and Consumption Taxes: A Primer" in A. Auerbach and D. Shaviro, eds. Institutional Foundations of Public Finance (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008), pp. 13-46.

James R. Hines Jr., "Taxing Consumption and Other Sins" Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter, 2007, pp. 49-68.

Slides

Topics:

Harberger model
“New view”
International issues

Applications:

Impact of various integration proposals
Impact of Bush dividend tax cut
International Tax Reform

Readings:

Rosen and Gayer, Chapter 19 "The Corporation Tax"

Richard Bird, "Why Tax Corporations?" Working Paper 96-2, prepared for the Technical Commission on Business Taxation, Canada, December, 1996.

Alan J. Auerbach, "Who Bears the Corporate Tax" in J. Poterba, ed., Tax Policy and the Economy, 2006, pp. 1-40.

Alan J. Auerbach, "A Modern Corporate Tax", Center for American Progress/Hamilton Project, December, 2010.

Slides

 

Topics:

The relationship of economics “experiments” to controlled experiments
Distinguishing causation from correlation
Distinguishing timing from permanent behavioral response

Applications:

Tax reform and labor supply
The Homeland Investment Act and repatriations

Readings:

(For additional background:) Howell Jackson, Louis Kaplow, Steven Shavell, W. Kip Viscusi, and David Cope, "Analytical Methods for Lawyers" (2nd ed., 2011), Chapters 8 and 9.

Daniel L. Rubinfeld,"Reference Guide on Multiple Regression"; in Federal Judicial Center, Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (3rd ed., 2011), pp. 303-357.

Marco Bianchi, Bjorn R. Gudmundsson and Gylfi Zoega, "Iceland's Natural Experiment in Supply-Side Economics"; American Economic Review, December, 2001, pp. 1564-1579.

Dhammika Dharmapala, C. Fritz Foley and Kristin J. Forbes, "Watch What I Do, Not What I Say: The Unintended Consequences of the Homeland Investment Act" Journal of Finance, June, 2011, pp. 753-787.

Slides