

Econ 230B: Graduate Public Economics, Spring 2013 (with downloadable lecture notes)
Econ 131: Undergraduate Public Economics, Spring 2013 (with downloadable lecture notes)
Econ 231: Public Economics Seminar and Lunch, Spring 2013 (Berkeley Calendar)
(Schedule in pdf)
The World Top Incomes Database joint with Facundo Alvaredo, Tony Atkinson, and Thomas Piketty, January 2011
Book and tax reform website: Pour une Révolution Fiscale: Un Impôt sur le Revenu pour le XXIème Siècle
(with Camille Landais and Thomas Piketty), Le Seuil (140 pages), January 2011 [in French]
NEW
"A Theory of Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand as Functions of Market Tightness with Prices as Parameters" with Pascal Michaillat, NBER Working Paper
No. 18826, February 2013
"Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998" with Thomas Piketty,
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 2003, 1-39
(Longer updated version published in A.B. Atkinson and T. Piketty eds., Oxford University Press, 2007)
(Tables and Figures Updated to 2011
in Excel format, January 2013)
NEW
"How Elastic are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments" with Ilyana Kuziemko, Michael Norton,
and Stefanie Stantcheva, NBER Working Paper No. 18865, March 2013 (Slides)
NEW
"Generalized Social Marginal Welfare Weights for Optimal Tax Theory" with Stefanie Stantcheva, NBER Working Paper No. 18835,
February 2013 (Slides)
(Short Slides)
NEW
"How Elastic are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments" with Ilyana Kuziemko, Michael Norton,
and Stefanie Stantcheva, NBER Working Paper No. 18865, March 2013 (Slides)
NEW
"Migration and Wage Effects of Taxing Top Earners: Evidence from the Foreigners' Tax Scheme in Denmark"
with Henrik Kleven, Camille Landais, and Esben Schultz, NBER Working Paper No. 18885, March 2013
(Slides)
FINAL
"A Theory of Optimal Inheritance Taxation" with Thomas Piketty, revised March 2013, forthcoming
Econometrica
(CEPR Discussion Paper No. 9241, December 2012)
(longer version "A Theory of Optimal Capital Taxation", NBER Working Paper No. 17989, April 2012)
(old Slides)
(excel file) (Data and Programs)
FINAL
"Optimal Labor Income Taxation" with Thomas Piketty, NBER Working Paper No. 18521, revised December 2012, forthcoming chapter
in Handbook of Public Economics, Volume 5
FINAL
"Optimal Taxation of Top Labor Incomes:
A Tale of Three Elasticities" with Thomas Piketty and Stefanie Stantcheva, NBER Working Paper No. 17616,
November 2011, revised March 2013, forthcoming American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
(Slides)
(VOX summary for the broader public)
(Data and Programs)
SLIDE PRESENTATION
"Income Inequality: Evidence and Policy Implications" Arrow Lecture, Stanford, January 2013
Income and Wealth Inequality
UPDATED
Summary for the broader public
"Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States", updated January 2013
"Top Incomes in the Long Run of History"
with Tony Atkinson and Thomas Piketty, Journal of Economic Literature, 49(1), 2011, 3-71
(Tables and Figures in Excel format)
Data Website:
The World Top Incomes Database.
"Inequality at Work: The Effect of Peer Salaries on Job Satisfaction" with David Card,
Alex Mas, and Enrico Moretti, American Economic Review, 102(6), 2012, 2981–3003
(older version
NBER Working Paper No. 16396, revised April 2011)
(Slides)
(NBER Digest summary for the broader public)
"Earnings Inequality and Mobility in the United States: Evidence from Social Security Data since 1937"
with Wojciech Kopczuk and Jae Song, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125(1), 2010, 91-128
(Supplementary Online Appendix)
(Tables and figures in electronic format)
(Older Version
NBER Working Paper No. 13345, August 2007)
"Income and Wealth Concentration in Spain in a Historical and Fiscal Perspective"
with Facundo Alvaredo, Journal of the European Economic Association 7(5), 2009, 1140–1167
(longer version published in A.B. Atkinson and T. Piketty eds.,
Oxford University Press, 2010) (Tables and Figures in Excel format)
"The Evolution of Income Concentration in Japan, 1886-2005:
Evidence from Income Tax Statistics"
with Chiaki Moriguchi, Review of Economics and Statistics 90(4), 2008, 713-734
(longer version published in A.B. Atkinson and T. Piketty eds.,
Oxford University Press, 2010) (Tables and Figures in Excel format)
"Income and Wealth Concentration in Switzerland over the 20th Century"
with Fabien Dell and Thomas Piketty, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 5090,
May 2005 published in A.B. Atkinson and T. Piketty eds., Oxford University Press, 2007
"The Evolution of Top Incomes: A Historical and International Perspective"
with Thomas Piketty, American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 96(2), 2006, 200-205
(NBER Working Paper No. 11955 version)
(Figures in Excel format)
(NBER Digest summary for the broader public)
"Income Concentration in a Historical and International Perspective",
published in ed. A. Auerbach, D. Card, and J. Quigley, Public Policy and Income Distribution, 2006
"Top Incomes in the United States and Canada over
the Twentieth Century",
Journal of the European Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings, 3(2-3), 2005, 402-411
"The Evolution of High Incomes in Northern America:
Lessons from Canadian Evidence" with Michael Veall,
American Economic Review, 95(3), 2005, 831-849
(longer version "The Evolution of High Incomes in Canada, 1920-2000" published
in A.B. Atkinson and T. Piketty eds., Oxford University Press, 2007)
(All Tables and Figures in Excel format)
"Top Wealth Shares in the United States, 1916-2000: Evidence from Estate Tax Returns"
with Wojciech Kopczuk, short version National Tax Journal, 57(2), Part 2, June 2004, 445-487
(long NBER Working Paper No. 10399, March 2004)
(All Tables and Figures in excel format)
Empirical Tax and Public Policy Studies
NEW
"Migration and Wage Effects of Taxing Top Earners: Evidence from the Foreigners' Tax Scheme in Denmark"
with Henrik Kleven, Camille Landais, and Esben Schultz, NBER Working Paper No. 18885, March 2013
(Slides)
"What Policies Motivate Pro-Social Behavior? An Experiment with Referees at the Journal of Public Economics" with Raj
Chetty and Laszlo Sandor, slides July 2012
FINAL
"Using Differences in Knowledge Across Neighborhoods to
Uncover the Impacts of the EITC on Earnings" with Raj
Chetty and John Friedman, revised February 2013, forthcoming American Economic Review
FINAL
"Taxation and International Mobility of Superstars: Evidence from the European Football Market" with Henrik
Kleven and Camille Landais, revised August 2012, forthcoming American Economic Review
(Slides)
(Older Version
NBER Working Paper No. 16545, November 2010)
(NBER Digest summary for the broader public)
"Teaching the Tax Code: Earnings Responses to an Experiment with EITC Recipients" with Raj Chetty, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 5(1), 2013, 1-31
(older version NBER Working Paper
No. 14836, April 2009)
(NBER Digest summary for the broader public)
"Earnings Determination and Taxes: Evidence from a Cohort Based Payroll Tax Reform in
Greece" with Manos Matsaganis and Panos Tsakloglou, Quarterly Journal of Economics
127(1), 2012, 493-533
"The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates:
A Critical Review" with Joel Slemrod and Seth Giertz, Journal of Economic Literature 50(1),
2012, 3-50
(older version NBER Working Paper No. 15012, May 2009)
Book and tax reform website: Pour une Révolution Fiscale: Un Impôt sur le Revenu pour le XXIème Siècle
(with Camille Landais and Thomas Piketty), Le Seuil (140 pages), January 2011 [in French]
"How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence from Project STAR", with
Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Nathaniel Hilger, Diane Schanzenbach, and Danny Yagan, Quarterly Journal of Economics 126, 2011, 1593-1660 (with supplementary appendix)
(Slides)
(Kappan article summary for the broader public)
"Unwilling or Unable to Cheat? Evidence from a Tax Audit Experiment in Denmark" with Henrik
Kleven, Martin Knudsen, Claus Kreiner, and Soren Pedersen,
Econometrica 79(3), 2011, 651-692
(older version NBER Working Paper No. 15769, February 2010)
(NBER Digest summary for the broader public)
"Expanding Access to Administrative Data for Research in the United States" with David Card, Raj Chetty, and Martin Feldstein, NSF white paper, September 2010 (An Open Letter on Expanding Access to Administrative Data for Research in the United States, July 2010)
"Do Taxpayers Bunch at Kink Points?"
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 2(3), 2010, 180-212
(earlier version NBER-TAPES conference draft, June 2002)
(older version NBER
Working Paper No. 7366, 1999)
"How Progressive is the U.S. Federal tax system?
A Historical and International Perspective"
with Thomas Piketty, Journal of Economic Perspectives , 21(1), 3-24,
Winter 2007
(longer version NBER Working Paper No. 12404, July 2006)
(All Tables and Figures in excel format)
"Earnings Responses to Increases in Payroll Taxes"
with Jeff Liebman, September 2006
"The Effects of Taxes on Market
Responses to Dividend Announcements and Payments:
What Can we Learn from the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut?"
with Raj Chetty and Joe Rosenberg, NBER Working Paper No. 11452, June 2005 published
in A. Auerbach and J. Slemrod, eds.
Taxing Corporate Income in the 21st Century, Cambridge University Press, 2007
"The Effect of the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut on Corporate
Behavior: Interpreting the Evidence" with Raj Chetty,
American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 96(2), 2006, 124-129
"Dividend Taxes and Corporate Behavior:
Evidence from the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut"
with Raj Chetty, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120(3), 2005, 791-833
(longer version NBER Working Paper No. 10841, October 2004)
(older preliminary version, NBER Working Paper No. 10572, June 2004)
(Some Tables and Figures updated to 2006-Q2, November 2006)
(NBER Digest summary for the broader public)
"Reported Incomes and Marginal Tax Rates, 1960-2000: Evidence
and Policy Implications" Ed. J. Poterba
Tax Policy and the Economy 18, 2004, 117-172
(longer version NBER Working Paper No. 10273, January 2004)
(All Tables and Figures in Excel format)
"The Effect of Marginal Tax Rates on Income:
A Panel Study of 'Bracket Creep'" Journal of Public Economics, 87, 2003,
1231-1258
"The Elasticity of Taxable Income: Evidence and Implications" with Jon
Gruber, Journal of Public Economics, 84, 2002, 1-32
(Longer version NBER Working Paper No. 7512 with Optimal Tax Simulations)
(NBER Digest summary for the broader public)
NEW
"A Theory of Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand as Functions of Market Tightness with Prices as Parameters" with Pascal Michaillat, NBER Working Paper
No. 18826, February 2013
NEW
"Generalized Social Marginal Welfare Weights for Optimal Tax Theory" with Stefanie Stantcheva, NBER Working Paper No. 18835,
February 2013 (Slides)
(Short Slides)
REVISED "Optimal Unemployment Insurance over the Business Cycle" with Camille Landais and Pascal Michaillat,
NBER Working Paper No. 16526, November 2010, revised January 2013
(Slides)
(Matlab Code)
FINAL
"A Theory of Optimal Inheritance Taxation" with Thomas Piketty, revised March 2013, forthcoming
Econometrica
(CEPR Discussion Paper No. 9241, December 2012)
(longer version "A Theory of Optimal Capital Taxation", NBER Working Paper No. 17989, April 2012)
(old Slides)
(excel file) (Data and Programs)
FINAL
"Optimal Labor Income Taxation" with Thomas Piketty, NBER Working Paper No. 18521, revised December 2012, forthcoming chapter
in Handbook of Public Economics, Volume 5
FINAL
"Optimal Taxation of Top Labor Incomes:
A Tale of Three Elasticities" with Thomas Piketty and Stefanie Stantcheva, NBER Working Paper No. 17616,
November 2011, revised March 2013, forthcoming American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
(Slides)
(VOX summary for the broader public)
(Data and Programs)
"Why Can Modern Governments Tax So Much? An Agency Model of Firms as Fiscal Intermediaries" with Henrik
Kleven and Claus Kreiner, NBER Working Paper No. 15218, August 2009
"Optimal Progressive Capital Income Taxes in the Infinite Horizon Model"
Journal of Public Economics 97, 2013, 61-74
"Optimal Minimum Wage Policy in Competitive Labor Markets" with David Lee,
Journal of Public Economics 96, 2012, 739-749
(older version NBER Working Paper No. 14320, September 2008)
"The Case for a Progressive Tax:
From Basic Research to Policy Recommendations"
with Peter Diamond, Journal of Economic Perspectives 25(4), Fall 2011, 165-190
"Dividend and Corporate Taxation in an Agency Model of the Firm" with Raj Chetty,
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 2(3), 2010, 1-31
(older version
"An Agency Theory of Dividend Taxation" NBER Working Paper No. 13538, October 2007)
"Optimal Taxation and Social Insurance with Endogenous Private Insurance", joint with Raj Chetty,
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 2(2), 2010, 85-116
(older version NBER Working Paper No. 14403, October 2008)
"Means Testing and Tax Rates on Earnings", joint with Michael
Brewer and Andrew Shephard, in The Mirrlees Review:
Reforming the Tax System for the 21st Century, Oxford University Press, 2010
"The Optimal Income Taxation of Couples"
with Henrik Kleven and Claus Kreiner, Econometrica 77(2), 2009, 537-560
(longer version CESifo Working Paper No. 2092, September 2007)
(Earlier version NBER Working Paper No. 12685, November 2006)
"Welfare Reform in European Countries: A Micro-Simulation Analysis",
with Herwig Immervoll, Henrik Kleven, and Claus Kreiner,
Economic Journal 117(1), 2007, 1-44
(older version, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 4324, March 2004)
(Simulation File in Excel format, October 2005)
(Press Release summary for the broader public)
"Redistribution Toward Low Incomes in Richer Countries",
Chapter 13, in A. Banerjee, R. Benabou, and D. Mookherjee eds. Understanding Poverty
(Oxford: Oxford University
Press), 2006
"The Optimal Treatment of Tax Expenditures"
Journal of Public Economics, 88(12), 2004, 2657-2684
"Direct or Indirect Tax Instruments For Redistribution:
Short-Run Versus Long-Run" Journal of Public Economics, 88, 2004,
503-518
"Optimal Income Transfer Programs:Intensive Versus Extensive Labor Supply
Responses" Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117, 2002, 1039-1073
"The Desirability of Commodity Taxation Under Non-Linear Income
Taxation and Heterogeneous Tastes" Journal of Public Economics, 83, 2002, 217-230
"Using Elasticities to Derive Optimal Income Tax Rates" Review of
Economic Studies, 68, 2001, 205-229
"Details Matter: The Impact of Presentation and Information on the Take-up of Financial Incentives for Retirement Saving", American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 1(1), 2009, 204-228 (Earlier Version CEPR Discussion Paper No. 6386, July 2007)
"Saving Incentives for Low- and Middle-Income Families: Evidence from a Field Experiment with H&R Block", with Esther Duflo, William Gale, Jeffrey Liebman, and Peter Orszag, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121(4), 1311-1346, 2006 (Longer version NBER Working Paper No. 11680)
(NBER Digest summary for the broader public)
"Savings Incentives for Low- and Moderate-Income Families in the United States: Why is the Saver's Credit Not More Effective?", with Esther Duflo, William Gale, Jeffrey Liebman, and Peter Orszag, Journal of the European Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings, 5(2-3), 647-661, 2007
"The Role of Information and Social Interactions in Retirement Plan Decisions: Evidence From a Randomized Experiment" with Esther Duflo, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118, 2003, 815-842
(Longer version NBER Working Paper No. 8885)
"Implications of Information and Social Interactions for Retirement Saving Decisions", with Esther Duflo, Pension Research Council Working Paper 2003-13 published in O. Mitchell and S. Utkus, eds., Pension Design and Structure: New Lessons from Behavioral Finance, 2004
"Participation and Investment Decisions in a Retirement Plan: the Influence of Colleagues' choices" with Esther Duflo, Journal of Public Economics, 85, 2002, 121-148