Northwestern concludes its two-day conference today on The Thunder of History:  Taxation in Comparative and Historical Perspective.  Below the fold is a list of today’s speakers and topics:

Social Consequences of Taxation (9:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.)

• Moderator: Celeste Watkins-Hayes (Sociology & African-American Studies, Northwestern)
• Paper:  Chris Howard (Political Science, William & Mary), Tax Policy as Social Policy in the United States
  • Discussants:
    • Joseph Cordes (Department of Economics & School of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University)
    • Richard Hay (Political Science, Northwestern)
• Paper:  Beverly Moran (Law and Sociology, Vanderbilt), Progressivity in Black and White: Race and the Income Tax
  • Discussants:
    • Edward McCaffery (Law, University of Southern California)
    • John Calvin Scott (Sociology, Cornell)
• Paper:  Evan Lieberman (Politics, Princeton), The Politics of Demanding Sacrifice: Understanding Government Responses to AIDS from the Perspective of Taxation
  • Discussants:
    • Dave Steinberg (Political Science, Northwestern)
    • Jennifer Rosen (Sociology, Northwestern)

Lessons of History for Tax Administration (1:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.)

• Moderator: Jeff Manza (Sociology, Northwestern)
• Paper:  Robin Einhorn (History, University of California, Berkeley), Liberty, Democracy, and Capacity: Lessons from the Early American Tax Regimes
  • Discussants:
    • Bruce Carruthers (Sociology, Northwestern)
    • Gergely Baics (History, Northwestern)
• Paper:  Edgar Kiser & Audrey Sacks (Sociology, University of Washington), What Can History Teach Us About Contemporary Tax Administration?
  • Discussants:
    • Charlotte Crane (Law, Northwestern)
    • Rime Naguib (Sociology, Northwestern)

Fiscal Sociology: Where is the Cutting Edge? (3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.)

• Moderator: Fay Lomax Cook (Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern)
• Paper:  Isaac Martin (Sociology, University of California-San Diego), Ajay Mehrotra (History & Law, Indiana University-Bloomington) & Monica Prasad (Sociology, Northwestern), Taxation in Perspective: Historical and Comparative Approaches
  • Discussants:
    • James Mahoney (Political Science and Sociology, Northwestern)
    • Audrey Sacks (Sociology, University of Washington)