107th Annual Conference Proceedings, 2014

Santa Fe, NM

Presidential Address

James R. Nunns, 2014 Presidential Address


Luncheon Speech by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University

Luncheon Speech by Mark Mazur, Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury

General Session in Honor of James M. Poterba, 2014 Holland Award Recipient

Video in Honor of James M. Poterba, 2014 Holland Award Recipient

  1. November 13, 2014

    1. Local Government and Fiscal Competition

      1. Gregory Burge (University of Oklahoma) and Cynthia Rogers (University of Oklahoma), Policy Leadership and Tax Competition: The Case of Local Option Sales Taxes
      2. David Agrawal (University of Georgia), The Internet as a Tax Haven?: The Effect of the Internet on Tax Competition
    2. Tax Enforcement and Collections Discretion

      1. Joshua Blank (NYU School of Law), Reconsidering Corporate Tax Privacy
      2. Shu-Yi Oei (Tulane Law School), What Is Fair Tax Administration?
      3. Andrew Hayashi (University of Virginia), Taxing Phantom Income and the Simple Economics of Paying in Kind
      4. Leigh Osofsky (University of Miami), Tax Law Nonenforcement
    3. Education Policy

      1. Eric Brunner (University of Connecticut), The Housing and Educational Consequences of the School Choice Provisions of NCLB: Evidence From Charlotte, NC
      2. Ian Kleats (NM Legislative Education Study Committee), Balancing Equalization With Increased Revenue for Education: Expansion of Local Tax Effort Under New Mexico’s State Equalization Guarantee
    4. Multinational Corporate Foreign Investments, Debt Structures, and Profit Shifting

      1. Jitao Tang (Ernst & Young LLP) and Rosanne Altshuler (Rutgers University), The Spillover Effects of Outward Foreign Direct Investment on Home Countries: Evidence From the United STates
      2. Jennifer Blouin (University of Pennsylvania), Does Organizational Form Affect Firms’ Foreign Operations? The Role of “Check-the-Box” on Multinational Tax Planning
      3. Li Liu (University of Oxford), Territoriality and Domestic and Outbound Investment of UK Multinationals: Evidence From Mirco-Level Data
    5. Transportation Infrastructure Financing in the 21st Century

      1. Denvil Duncan (Indiana University), Bumpy Designs: Impact of Privacy and Technology Costs on Support for Road Mileage User Fees
      2. Asha Agrawal (San Jose State University), What Do Americans Think About Federal Tax Options to Support Public Transit, Highways, and Local Streets and Roads? Results From Year 5 of a National Survey
    6. Family Dynamics and Tax Policy

      1. Kavan Kucko (Boston University) and Kory Kroft (University of Toronto), How Does Unemployment Affect the Desirability of the EITC vs. NIT: Theory and Evidence
      2. Patricia Tong (U.S. Department of the Treasury), Tracking EITC Qualifying Children Over Time
      3. Emily Lin (U.S. Department of the Treasury) and Patricia Tong (U.S. Department of the Treasury), Effects of Marriage Penalty Relief Tax Policy on Marriage Taxes and Marginal Tax Rates of Cohabiting Couples
    7. Issues in Property Taxation

      1. David Sjoquist (Georgia State University) and Sally Wallace (Georgia State University), Willingness to Pay for Property Tax Assessment Equity
      2. John Mikesell (Indiana University) and Daniel Mullins (American University), The Effects of Major Property Tax Reforms on the Distribution of Residential and Commercial Tax Burdens, Yield and Local Government Access to Discretionary Resources: Evidence From Eight States
      3. Michael Conlin (Michigan State University) and Paul Thompson (Michigan State University), Determinants of Sequential Local Referendum Elections
    8. Sourcing Services and Intangibles for State Tax Purposes

      1. Helen Hecht (Multistate Tax Commission), Sourcing of Digital Goods and Services for Sales Tax – the Evolution of a Federal Legislative Proposal
    9. Cities, Housing, and Taxes

      1. Joshua Miller (National Association of Home Builders), James Alm (Tulane University), Zackary Hawley (Texas Christian University) and Jin Man Lee (DePaul University), Property Tax Delinquency’s Spillover Effect on Neighboring Properties
      2. Ron Cheung (Oberlin College) and Rachel Meltzer (The New School), How Do Homeowners Associations Affect Housing Affordability?
      3. Zachary Liscow (Yale University), Are Court Orders Responsible for the “Return to the Central City”?: The Consequence of School Finance Litigation
    10. Effects of Tax Policy on Income Inequality and Volatility

      1. Ahiteme Houndonougbo (Rollins College) and Matthew Murray (University of Tennessee), Millionaires or Job Creators: What Really Happens to Employment When You Stick It to the Rich?
      2. Lori Metcalf (DC OCFO), Ginger Moored (DC CFO) and Yesim Yilmaz (District of Columbia OCFO), Taxing the Wealthy: DC’s Experience Raising the Top Income Tax Rate
      3. Estelle Dauchy (New Economic School) and Nathan Seegert (University of Utah), Decomposing Consumption Inequality: The Contribution of Income Dispersion and Taxation
    11. The Search for the Elusive Nonfiler

      1. James Cilke (Joint Committee on Taxation), The Case of the Missing Strangers: What We Know and Don’t Know About Non-Filers.
      2. Brian Erard (B. Erard & Associates), Pat Langetieg (IRS), Mark Payne (IRS) and Alan Plumley (IRS), Missing Returns vs. Missing Income: Estimating the Extent of Individual Income Tax Filing Noncompliance From IRS and Census Data
    12. Political Uncertainty and Financial Markets

      1. Timothy Goodspeed (Hunter College and Graduate Center, CUNY), Economic Effects of the Taxation of Banks as Corporations: An Analysis in a Simple Industrial Organization Model
      2. David Cashin (Federal Reserve Board of Governors), Take It to the Limit: The Debt Ceiling, Political Brinkmanship, and Treasury Yields
      3. Laura Xiaolei Liu (Hong Kong University of Sci. & Tech.), Haibing Shu (Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business) and K.C. John Wei (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), The Impacts of Political Uncertainty on Asset Prices: Evidence From a Natural Experiment
    13. Financing Higher Education

      1. george bulman (ucsc) and Caroline Hoxby (Stanford University), The Effects of the Higher Education Tax Credits on Collegiate Attainment, Earnings, and the Fisc
      2. Alissa Dubnicki (Analysis Group), Federal Financial Aid Eligibility and Student Debt
      3. Benjamin Marx (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) and Lesley Turner (University of Maryland), Borrowing Trouble? Student Loans, the Cost of Borrowing, and Implications for the Effectiveness of Need-Based Grant Aid
    14. NTA: The Next Generation

      1. Jameson Boex (Urban Institute) and Francois Vaillancourt (Universite de Montreal), Is Devolution the Only Type of Fiscal Decentralization That Matters?
      2. Mehmet Tosun (University of Nevada-Reno) and Serdar Yilmaz (World Bank), Decentralization, Power – Sharing Tensions and Impact on Local Public Service Delivery in Sierra Leone
    15. Corporate Tax Avoidance: Over Time and the Effect of Insiders

      1. Thomas Kubick (University of Kansas), George Lockhart (Clemson University) and John Robinson (university of texas at austin), Does Inside Debt Moderate Corporate Tax Avoidance?
      2. Scott Dyreng (Duke University) and Michelle Hanlon (MIT), Changes in Corporate Tax Avoidance Over the Past Twenty-Five Years
      3. James Chyz (University of Tennessee), Overconfidence and Aggressive Corporate Tax Policy
    16. Policy Interactions Across Jurisdictions

      1. Laura Wheeler (Georgia State University), The Effect of State Adoption of Federal Provisions on State Level Capital Consumption
      2. Marcel Gérard (Univeristé catholique de Louvain) and Lucia Granelli (Université catholique de Louvain), Taxing Cross-Border Savings Income, EU Directive and US Fatca
    17. Toward a Better Understanding of State and Local Public Finance Instruments: Efficiency and Implications

      1. Kathryn Birkeland (University of South Dakota) and Raymond Ring, Jr (University of South Dakota), Consumers’ Share and Producers’ Share of the General Sales Tax
      2. Iksoo Cho (Nebraska Department of Revenue), Local Sales Tax, Cross-Border Shopping, and Distance
    18. Optimal Income Tax Structures

      1. Nicholas Lawson (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), Taxing the Job Creators: Efficient Progressive Taxation With Wage Bargaining
      2. Richard Green (University of Southern California) and Mark Phillips (University of Southern California), Demand for “The 1%”: Tax Incidence and Implications for Optimal Income Tax Rates
      3. Seth Giertz (University of Nebraska) and Jacob Mortenson (Georgetown University & Joint Tax), Policy Uncertainty and Rent Seeking by Firms and CEOs: Implications for Efficiency and Optimal Tax Rates
    19. Safety Net Programs: Design and Participation

      1. Mallory Vachon (Syracuse University), The Impact of Local Market Conditions on the Federal Disability Insurance Program: Evidence From the Bakken Oil Boom
      2. Mathias Dolls (Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsfor), Clemens Fuest (ZEW), Dirk Neumann (CORE, Université catholique de Louvain) and Andreas Peichl (University of Mannheim), An Unemployment Insurance System for the Euro Area: Evidence at the Micro Level
    20. Political Economy

      1. Enda Hargaden (University of Michigan), Political Fragmentation and Fiscal Policy
    21. Municipal, Local, and Global Tax Incentives

      1. Erin Scharff (Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law/ASU), Powerful Cities, Efficient Revenues: Limits on Municipal Taxing Authority and What to Do About It
      2. Agustin Leon-Moreta (University of New Mexico), Tax-Expenditure Limitations and Special District Finance in the United States
    22. Policy Implications of Oil and Gas Production

      1. Jim Peach (New Mexico State University) and Anthony Popp (New Mexico State University), Peak Oil, Oil Price Volatility, and State Tax Revenue
    23. Higher Education and Human Capital

      1. Michael Simkovic (Seton Hall Law School), Taxing Human Capital
      2. John Brooks (Georgetown University Law Center), Income-Based Repayment and the Public Financing of Higher Education
      3. Benjamin Leff (American University), The Income-Based Repayment Swap: A Novel Mechanism for Financing Legal Education
    24. Quantitative Analysis of Tax Policy and Charitable Giving

      1. Brian Galle (Boston College), Does Nonprofit Law Matter? Evidence From Private Foundation Spending
    25. Fiscal Federalism

      1. Price Fishback (University of Arizona), Theresa Gutberlet (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and John Wallis (University of Maryland), The Great Depression, the New Deal, and the Origins of Modern State Government Fiscal Policies
      2. Lars-Erik Borge (Norwegian University of Science and Tech), Fiscal Adjustment and Balanced-Budget-Rules: Evidence From a Norwegian Reform
      3. Teresa Garcia-Mila (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Therese McGuire (Northwestern University) and Wallace Oates (University of Maryland), Strength in Diversity? Fiscal Federalism Among the 50 U.S. States
    26. Thoughts on Shifts in Tax Structure, Business Activity and Implementing a Fiscal Union

      1. Nicholas Saxon (University of Nevada, Reno) and Mehmet Tosun (University of Nevada-Reno), Local Sales Taxes and Business Activity in the United States
      2. fabrizio balassone (banca d’italia), Sandro Momigliano (Bank of Italy), Marzia Romanelli (Banca d’Italia) and Pietro Tommasino (Bank of Italy), Just Round the Corner? Pros, Cons, and Implementation Issues of a Fiscal Union for the Euro Area
      3. Dirk Neumann (CORE, Université catholique de Louvain), Benefi Ting From a European Fi Scal Union? Redistribution vs. Stabilization
    27. Corporate Tax: Compliance, Competition, and Cash

      1. Robert Gary (University of New Mexico), Sanjay Gupta (Michigan State University) and William Terando (Butler University), Does Tax Management Play a Role in Sustaining a Competitive Advantage?
      2. Andrew Bird (University of Toronto), Alexander Edwards (University of Toronto) and Terry Shevlin (University of California-Irvine), Earnings Lockout and Inbound Merger and Acquisition Activity
    28. Public Sector Benefits: Funding , Behavior & Objectives From the Perspectives of Governments and Taxpayers

      1. Robert Triest (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston) and Bo Zhao (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston), The Role of Economic, Fiscal, and Financial Shocks in the Evolution of Public Sector Pension Funding
      2. Paul Rose (Ohio State University) and Jason Seligman (The Ohio State University), Are Alternative Investments Prudent? Public Sector Pension Use and Fiduciary Duty
      3. Evgenia Gorina (University of Texas at Dallas), Local Revenue Structure and Pension Liability Funding: Evidence From Government-Wide Financial Statements
    29. Analyzing Corporate Tax Issues Using Administrative Data

      1. Michael Gideon (University of Michigan), Uncovering Heterogeneity in Income Tax Perceptions
      2. Ronald Fisher (Michigan State University) and Robert Wassmer (California State University, Sacramento), Perception of Gasoline Taxes and Driver Cost: Implications for Highway Finance and Investment
      3. Kenneth Kriz (Wichita State University), Anchoring and Adjustment Biases and Local Government Referenda Language
      4. Conor Clarke (Yale Law School) and Edward Fox (Yale Law School, Michigan Economics), Tax Expenditures and Direct Spending: A Survey Experiment
      5. Gerald Auten (U.S. Department of the Treasury), David Joulfaian (U.S. Department of the Treasury) and Romen Mookerje (Dartmouth College), Recent Trends in Like-kind Exchanges
  2. November 14, 2014

    1. The Positive-Normative Duality in Tax Theory

      1. Florian Scheuer (Stanford University), Capital Taxation Under Political Constraints
      2. Nathaniel Hendren (Harvard and NBER), The Inequality Deflator: Interpersonal Comparisons Without a Social Welfare Function
      3. Andreas Peichl (University of Mannheim), The World Is Flat: Existing Tax Bene Fit Systems Approximate a Linear One
      4. Matthew Weinzierl (Harvard Business School), Positive and Normative Judgments Implicit in U.S. Tax Policy, and the Costs of Unequal Growth and Recessions
    2. Conceptualizing the Social and Regulatory Nature of Taxation

      1. Theodore Seto (Loyola Marymount University), Some Implications of Preference-Shifting for Optimal Tax Theory
      2. David Hasen (University of Colorado), Income Taxation and Risk-Taking
    3. Tax Distortions in Firm Mobility, Local Employment, and Finance

      1. Sebastian Siegloch (IZA), Employment Effects of Local Corporate Taxes
      2. Elena Patel (US Department of the Treasury), Nathan Seegert (University of Utah) and Matthew Smith (US Department of Treasury), Testing the Distortions From the Corporate Tax
      3. Martin Thomsen (University of Muenster), Tax Sells – How Do Jurisdictions Attract Firms and How Do Firms React to Mispricings?
    4. Pensions, Saving, and Retirement Wealth

      1. Marta Lachowska (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research), The Effect of Public Pension Wealth on Saving and Expenditure: Evidence From Poland’s 1999 Pension Reform
      2. Adam Lavecchia (University of Toronto), Does Raising Contribution Limits Lead to More Saving? Evidence From the ‘Catch-Up Limit’ Reform
    5. Taxation and Corporate Investment

      1. Elena Patel (US Department of the Treasury) and Nathan Seegert (University of Utah), The Impact of Bonus Depreciation Provisions as Seen in the Hospital Industry, 2002-2010
      2. Eric Ohrn (University of Michigan / Grinnell College) and Nathan Seegert (University of Utah), Dividend Taxation and Merger Behavior: A New View Explanation for the Post-Merger Performance Puzzle
    6. The Elasticities of Labor Supply and Taxable Income

      1. Anil Kumar (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas), Declining Female Labor Supply Elasticities in the US and Implications for Tax Policy: Evidence From Panel Data
    7. Information About Tax Planning in Financial Statements

      1. Lisa De Simone (Stanford Graduate School of Business), Lillian Mills (University of Texas at Austin) and Bridget Stomberg (University of Georgia), Measuring Income Mobility
    8. Countercyclical Fiscal Policies for States and Localities

      1. Yilin Hou (Syracuse University) and Ping Zhang (Fudan University), Optimal Local Use of Debt With Volatile Revenues and Stable Infrastructure Needs
      2. Bo Zhao (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston), Saving for a Rainy Day: Estimating the Appropriate Size of State Budget Stabilization Funds
      3. Gary Wagner (Old Dominion University) and Erick Elder (University of Arkansas at Little Rock), Risk Sharing in Local Governments: Are State-Wide Rainy Day Funds the Answer?
      4. Yolanda Kodrzycki (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston), Smoothing Revenues Over the Business Cycle: Gauging State Needs and Opportunities
    9. Contributions and Crowd-Out

      1. Yonghong Wu (University of Illinois Chicago) and David Merriman (University of Illinois), 1. Do Federal Academic Research and Development Subsidies Crowd Out State Funding of Academic Research?
      2. Garth Heutel (University of North Carolina at Greensbo), Crowding Out and Crowding in: Evidence From a Large Organization
      3. Abigail Payne (McMaster University) and Justin Smith (University of Manitoba), Does Income Inequality Increase Charitable Giving?
    10. Salience and Taxes

      1. Robert Strauss (Carnegie Mellon University) and Skye Toor (Carnegie Mellon), The Readability of the US Tax System: 1991-2013
      2. Seriously?, The Impact of Restaurant Letter Grades on Taxes and Sales: Evidence From New York City
    11. New Evidence on Taxpayer Compliance

      1. Justin Marion (University of California, Santa Cruz) and Erich Muehlegger (Harvard University), Tax Compliance and Fiscal Externalities: Evidence From U.S. Diesel Taxation
    12. Hitting the Target: Public and Private Savings

      1. Daniel Shaviro (New York University), Multiple Myopias, Multiple Selves, and the Under-Saving Problem
      2. Andrew Biggs (American Enterprise Institute), The Public Pension Quadrilemma: The Intersection of Investment Risk and Contribution Risk
      3. Elizabeth Chorvat (University of Illinois), Taxation and Liquidity: Evidence From Retirement Savings
    13. Taxes and Decisions Within Families

      1. Adam Cole (U.S. Department of the Treasury), Match.edu: College Choice and Assortative Matching
      2. Katherine Michelmore (University of Michigan), The EITC and Union Formation: The Impact of Potential Spouse Earnings
      3. Edward Fox (Yale Law School, Michigan Economics), Poe v. Seaborn, Joint Taxation, and Marriage Formation
    14. New Work on Optimal Tax Policies

      1. Ryan Nunn (U.S. Department of the Treasury), Optimal Tax Preferences
      2. Spencer Bastani (Uppsala University), Sören Blomquist (Uppsala University) and Luca Micheletto (University of Milan), A Quantitative Exploration of the Optimal Design of Child Care Subsidies in a Mirrleesian Environment
      3. Matthew Weinzierl (Harvard Business School), Revisiting the Classical View of Benefits-Based Taxation
  3. November 15, 2014

    1. Property Taxes: Support for, Relief From, and Collapse

      1. John Anderson (University of Nebraska) and Richard England (University of New Hampshire), Use Value Assessment of Rural Land in the United States
    2. Behavioral Economics and Tax Policy

      1. Brian Galle (Boston College), Instrument Choice for Internality Regulation
    3. Decision Making in State and Local Public Finance

      1. Geoffrey Sanzenbacher (Boston College), Jean-Pierre Aubry (Boston College) and Alicia Munnell (Boston College), Recruiting and Retaining State and Local Workers: Does the Share of Compensation Paid Through Pensions Matter
    4. State and Local Fiscal Rules — Determinants and Effects

      1. Mark Ibele (State of California Legislature), Structuring a Functional State Reserve Fund: Lessons From California
    5. Taxpayer Information Provision and Innovative Tax Enforcement

      1. Jonathan Forman (University of Oklahoma) and Roberta Mann (University of Oregon), Making the Internal Revenue Service Work
      2. Yulia Paramonova (University of Michigan), The Optimal Deterrance of Tax Evasion: The Trade-Off Between Information Reporting and Audits
      3. Kelvin Law (Tilburg University) and Lillian Mills (University of Texas at Austin), Measuring Tax Aggressiveness Using Linguistic Cues
    6. Tax Incentives and Corporate Investment

      1. Eric Ohrn (University of Michigan / Grinnell College), The Business Investment Response to the Domestic Production Activities Deduction
      2. Martin Jacob (WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management), Kelly Wentland (University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill) and Scott Wentland (Longwood University), Firm Tax Uncertainty, Cash Holdings, and the Timing of Large Investment
    7. The Effect of Taxation on Migration and Redistribution

      1. Cristobal Young (Stanford University), Charles Varner (Stanford Univeristy), Ithai Lurie (U.S. Department of the Treasury) and Richard Prisinzano (U.S. Department of Treasury), Millionaire Migration and the Demography of the Elite: Implications for American Tax Policy
      2. Karen Conway (university of new hampshire) and Jonathan Rork (Reed College), The Consequences of State Tax Preferential Treatment of the Elderly
      3. Enrico Moretti (University of California) and Daniel Wilson (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco), Taxation, Migration, and Innovation: Do Star Scientists Move in Response to Interstate Tax Differences?
    8. Taxes on Business Capital

      1. Patrick Driessen (Consultant), Vanishing Corporate Income and Government Spending in Distribution Models
    9. The Affordable Care Act

      1. Bradley Heim (Indiana University), Gillian Hunter (US Treasury), Ithai Lurie (U.S. Department of the Treasury) and Shanthi Ramnath (U.S. Department of the Treasury), Waves and Cliffs: Marginal Earnings Incentives in the Affordable Care Act
      2. Ithai Lurie (U.S. Department of the Treasury), Bradley Heim (Indiana University) and Kosali Simon (Indiana University), The Impact of the Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence From Tax Data
    10. The Impacts of Tax and Expenditure Programs on Mobility

      1. Brett Mullins (Georgia State University), Mark Rider (Georgia State University), David Sjoquist (Georgia State University) and Sally Wallace (Georgia State University), Helping Hand or Anchor: The Effect of Public Assistance on Income Mobility Among the Poor
      2. Claudio Agostini (Universidad Adolfo Ibañez), Marcela Perticara (Universidad Alberto Hurtado) and Javiera Selman (Universidad de Chile), An Earned Income Tax Credit Proposal for Chile
    11. Volatility in the States: Are Rainy Day Funds Up to the Task?

      1. Fred Thompson (Willamette University), Revenue Volatility and Budget Stability: From Robust Control Theory to Practical Heuristics
      2. Gary Wagner (Old Dominion University) and Erick Elder (University of Arkansas at Little Rock), Rainy Day Funds, Risk-Sharing, and Simple Rules: How Would States Fair?
    12. Compliance and Enforcement: New Theory and Evidence

      1. Mark Phillips (University of Southern California) and Alan Plumley (IRS), Effort and Compliance as Endogenous Taxpayer Decisions
      2. Jason DeBacker (Middle Tennessee State University), Bradley Heim (Indiana University), Anh Tran (Indiana University) and Alexander Yuskavage (Office of Tax Analysis), Once Bitten, Twice Shy? The Impact of IRS Audits on Filer Behavior
      3. Tuomas Kosonen (VATT, Government institute for economic research), Jarkko Harju (Government Institute for Economic Research) and Olli Ropponen (Government Institute for Economic Research (VATT)), Do Honest Hairdressers Get a Haircut? On Tax Rate and Tax Evasion
      4. Ivan Badinski (Williams College) and Jon Bakija (Williams College), Evidence on the Responsiveness of Export-Related VAT Evasion to VAT Rates in the EU
    13. New Resources for Microdata-Based Tax Analysis

      1. Victoria Bryant (IRS), John Czajka (Mathematica), Georgia Ivsin (Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center) and James Nunns (Urban Institute), Design Changes to the SOI Public Use File (PUF)
      2. Surachai Khitatrakun (Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center) and Gordon Mermin (Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center), Re-Weighting a Model Based on IRS Statistics of Income Public Use Tax File for State-Level Analysis
      3. Michael Weber (Internal Revenue Service), The SOI Joint Research Program