119th Annual Conference – Slemrod Lecture

Slemrod Lecture: Measuring the Welfare Impact of Government Policies
Saturday, November 14, 2026

 

This short course covers recent advances in measuring the welfare impact of government tax and spending policies using the Marginal Value of Public Funds (MVPF) approach. Nathaniel Hendren will discuss how this approach differs from other frameworks such as the marginal excess burden and the marginal cost of public funds, as well as the common issues that arise in using the framework to draw normative conclusions about a policy. He will then turn to the lessons this approach has provided across a wide range of policy domains, including tax policy and tax enforcement, environmental policy, healthcare, education, and social insurance.

Nathaniel Hendren is a Professor of Economics at MIT. He is a Founder and Co-Director of Policy Impacts, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of government decision-making and evidence-based policy-making. He is also a Founder and Co-Director of Opportunity Insights, which is dedicated to identifying barriers to economic opportunity and developing scalable solutions that will empower people throughout the United States to rise out of poverty and achieve better life outcomes.