November 18-21, 2020 | Virtual Conference |  Zoom | 

Graduate Student Initiatives

The National Tax Association warmly welcomes graduate students to attend our Annual Conference on the Zoom platform.

The conference offers many opportunities to meet and talk with NTA members, the leaders in tax and government spending policy. As you will find out, our members want to get to know you and learn about your research! And for those of you on the job market, attending the conference will increase your profile and help put you in touch with potential employers. Click here to see the full list of students on the market.

We have several activities planned specifically for graduate students. Read on!

Graduate Student Virtual Mentoring Session

Registration for the Mentoring Session Is Now Closed

Join us for our first ever Virtual Mentoring Session for students on Thursday, November 19th from 9:45AM – 11:00AM (EST). You will get the opportunity to meet with several senior mentors in the field of economics, tax policy and law and ask questions that you might not have the opportunity to ask in other settings.

You’ll meet in small groups with other students and hear from 2 – 3 mentors at a time. Each group will have a theme that will focus the conversation. You’ll have the opportunity to rotate through all five groups and ask any questions that you would like.

Below are our mentors and the areas that they will be focusing on.

• Adam Looney, Brookings Institution, Nonresident Senior Fellow – Economic Studies, Executive Director, Marriner S. Eccles Institute, University of Utah, Topic Area: Choosing a Career: Academics vs Practitioners

• Elena Patel, Assistant Professor, University of Utah, Topic Area: Choosing a Career: Academics vs Practitioners

• Katherine (Katie) Pratt, Professor of Law & Sayre Macneil Fellow, Loyola Law School, Topic Area: Choosing a Career: Academics vs Practitioners

• James Alm, Professor of Economics, Tulane University and President of NTA, Topic Area: Balancing your Career and Personal Life: How Do You Do it All?

• Daphne Kenyon, Resident Fellow in Tax Policy, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Topic Area: Balancing your Career and Personal Life: How Do You Do it All?

• Tatiana Homonoff, Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy, New York University, Topic Area: Getting Ready for the Job Market/Preparing for Job Talks

• Laura Kawano, Research Affiliate at the Office of Tax Policy Research, University of Michigan, Topic Area: Getting Ready for the Job Market/Preparing for Job Talks

• Molly Saunders Scott, Congressional Budget Office, Topic Area: Getting Ready for the Job Market/Preparing for Job Talks

• Byron Lutz, Assistant Director, Chief, Fiscal Analysis Section, Research and Statistics, Federal Reserve Board, Topic Area: Non-Academic Career Paths/Govt, Think Tanks and Consulting Firms

• Jay Mackie, Executive Director | Quantitative Economics and Statistics (QUEST), Ernst & Young, Topic Area: Non-Academic Career Paths/Govt, Think Tanks and Consulting Firms

• Peter Merrill, Senior Advisor in the National Economics and Statistics Group, PwC, Topic Area: Non-Academic Career Paths/Govt, Think Tanks and Consulting Firms

• Dhammika Dharmapala, Julius Kreeger Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School, Topic Area: Research and the Publication Process

• Andrew Hanson, Associate Professor, University of Illinois, Chicago, Topic Area: Research and the Publication Process

Graduate Student Virtual Breakfast

All students are invited to “breakfast” on Friday, November 20 from 10:00 to 11:00 am EST on Zoom. This is a great opportunity to meet students from other graduate programs and NTA members — some of whom may become your colleagues and coauthors. In addition, NTA members employed in government agencies and think tanks will discuss how they inform and develop public policy with their work and research. 

Sponsorships for the breakfast are available! Contact April Davis at adavis@ntanet.org for information.

NTA: The Next Generation Session

The Next Generation session will consist entirely of graduate student papers. The session is well attended by the NTA community of tax and public finance professionals as well as graduate students. The session can be found here.

Graduate Student Research Forum

The Annual Conference will also have a virtual student poster session that will allow students to network with other professionals working on tax and government spending policy-including potential employers! Students will present their research and take questions from the audience in small virtual meeting rooms. 

Saturday Afternoon Short Course

Graduate students are encouraged to attend the short course on the Taxation of the Superrich presented by Florian Scheuer, UBS Professor of Economics of Institutions, University of Zurich . The session will run from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm EST, on Saturday, November 21 on Zoom.  The short course is sponsored by the University of Michigan Office of Tax Policy Research.

On the Job Market?
If so, please tell us when you register for the conference. You can also provide us with a link to your web page. We will make it easier for potential employers to find you by putting your name, e-mail address, and homepage on the conference website and indicating on the conference program whether a speaker is a graduate student on the market this year.  This is a great opportunity to possibly meet your future employer! 

Please direct any questions to  nta@ntanet.org.