Yoram Margalioth (Tel Aviv University Law School) presented Not a Panacea for Economic Growth: The Case for Accelerated Depreciation at UCLA yesterday as part of its Tax Policy and Public Finance Workshop Series, Here is part of the Introduction:

Accelerated depreciation deductions have been a tenet of US tax policy for the past 50 years. They are widely believed to promote economic growth.1 In this paper, I argue that accelerated depreciation is based on a questionable economic growth theory and suggest switching to a depreciation method that is closer to economic depreciation. This may allow lowering tax rates or increasing tax incentives to research and development — the real engine of economic growth.