Author: Conor Clarke
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Holter et al on Progressivity and Optimal Household Taxation
Hans Holter (Delaware) and co-authors have a new NBER working paper, “Till the IRS Do Us Part: (Optimal) Taxation of Households.” Here is the abstract: This paper argues that a progressive tax system combined with individual taxation of married couples can generate more revenue than the current household-based U.S. system, especially when the extra revenues…
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National Evidence on the Effects of School Phone Bans
Hunt Alcott (Stanford) and many co-authors have a new NBER working paper on restricting school phone use, “The Effects of School Phone Bans: National Evidence from Lockable Pouches.” (A topic I am interested in, as someone who restricts electronics use in the classroom.) Here is the abstract: Schools across the U.S. have sharply restricted student…
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Mehrotra Reviews Campbell’s “Taxation and Resentment”
Ajay K. Mehrotra (Northwestern) has published a Lawfare review essay on a new book by Andrea Louise Campbell (MIT Political Science), Taxation and Resentment: Race, Party, and Class in American Tax Attitudes (2025). From the review: Since the 1980s, tax cuts have been a cornerstone of national Republican economic policy. The 1970s property tax revolts began…
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Initial Data on 2026 Tax Refunds
Max Rego, “How are Americans spending their tax refunds this year?” (The Hill, April 26, 2026), provides an overview of initial Treasury data: [T]he average tax refund this filing season was more than $3,400, an increase of 11 percent from last year. Treasury also said that more than 53 million filers utilized at least one…
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Kentucky Enacts Excise Tax on Prediction Markets
Matthew Pertz, “Kentucky Lawmakers Enact Excise Tax on Prediction Markets” (Tax Notes, April 27, 2026): Kentucky Republicans have overridden another of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s vetoes, this time of a sweeping tax bill that taxes prediction markets. Lawmakers enacted the revenue omnibus bill, H.B. 757, on April 14, just one day after Beshear’s line-item vetoes, with…
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IEEPA Tariff Refund Process Begins
Amanda Athanasiou, “U.S. Customs Begins IEEPA Tariff Refund Process” (Tax Notes, April 21, 2026): U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has begun the first phase of its process for refunding tariffs deemed by the Supreme Court to have been unlawfully imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). On April 20 CBP launched the…
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Cutler and Glaeser: How Have Universities Survived for Nearly a Millenium?
David M. Cutler (Harvard) and Edward L. Glaeser (Harvard) have a new NBER working paper, “How Have Universities Survived for Nearly a Millenium.” Here is the abstract: How have universities managed to survive and evolve over almost 1,000 years to become wildly heterogeneous, unusually fractious, multi-product, non-profit entities? Universities began as teachers’ guilds, and they…
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Bastian and Harvey: The 2021 Child Tax Credit and Consumer Sentiment
Jacob Bastian (Rutgers) and Melody Harvey (Wisconsin) have a new NBER working paper, “When Policy Shapes Perception: The 2021 Child Tax Credit and Consumer Sentiment.” Here is the abstract: Consumer sentiment influences household behavior in important ways, yet we lack causal evidence on whether government policies themselves shape these perceptions. We help fill this gap…
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Tariffs in 2025: Short-Run Impacts on the U.S. Economy
Pablo D. Fajgelbaum (UCLA) & Amit Khandelwal (Yale) have a new NBER working paper, “Tariffs in 2025: Short-Run Impacts on the U.S. Economy.” Here is the abstract: In 2025, the U.S. raised average tariff duties from 2.4% to 9.6%, bringing protectionism to its highest level in eighty years. We explore the structure of these tariffs,…
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Call for Papers: CUHK-KCL Annual Conference on Tax, Trade, and Investment Law
More information at the full link, but here are the basic details: The Faculty of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Dickson Poon School of Law at King’s College London (KCL) will jointly host the CUHK-KCL Annual Conference on Tax, Trade, and Investment Law on 10-11 September 2026 (Thursday and…
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Holden and Kisska-Schulze: The Taxable Future of College Sports
John T. Holden (Indiana) and Kathryn Kisska-Schulze (Clemson) have published The Taxable Future of College Sports, 77 Ala. L. Rev. 287 (2025). Here is the abstract: College sports are changing. Historically the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) exercised a strong arm to prohibit college athletes from receiving any form of compensation. Today, a power shift…
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Wallace and Wells: The Past and Future of Taxing “Incomes”
Clint Wallace (South Carolina) & Bret Wells (Houston) have published The Past and Future of Taxing “Incomes”, 104 N.C. L. Rev. 1 (2025). Here is the abstract: For at least half a century, the text of the Sixteenth Amendment—“Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived”—has been treated…
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Christensen & Appleby: Taxing Indigenous Cultural Property
Grant Christensen (Alabama) and Andrew Appleby (Tennessee) have posted Taxing Indigenous Cultural Property, 52 BYU L. Rev. (forthcoming 2026). Here is the abstract: What is the value of something that cannot legally be sold? This question lies at the heart of a growing tension between federal tax policy and Indigenous rights. Although federal law prohibits…
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Murphy: The Capital Gains Preference, Women, and Persons of Color
Ann M. Murphy (Gonzaga), has published Nothing to Gain: The Disparate Impact of the Capital Gains Tax Preference on Women and Persons of Color, 26 Nev. L.J. 1 (2025). Here is the abstract: Tax preference provisions are scattered across the Internal Revenue Code, and the capital gains tax rate offers an enormous advantage for wealthy taxpayers.…
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Browde: Prohibiting State Property Taxes in Indian Country
Pippa Browde (Montana) has published “#Taxback? Prohibiting State Real Property Taxes on Land in Indian Country,” 108 Marq. L. Rev. 877 (2025). Here is the abstract: Land is a critical asset of Indian tribes. As tribes wrestle with how to create sustainable economies to support their sovereignty, the use and management of tribal land is…
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Avi-Yonah et al: Taxation of Autonomous Artificial Intelligence
Reuven Avi-Yonah, Lucas Brasil Salama, Herbert Snitz, and W. Robert Thomas have published “Taxation of Autonomous Artificial Intelligence” (the Boden Lecture) in the Marquette Law Review. Here is the abstract: This Article proposes that tax can be a useful supplement to other measures to regulate Autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AAI) and limit its potential harmful effects.…
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The Road Ahead for Trump’s Tariff Refunds
Michael Smith, “The Long, Winding Road for Trump’s Tariff Refunds” (Tax Notes, March 24, 2026): U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has presented a plan for providing tariff refunds that offers some hope that importers will be able to receive a prompt refund — but several questions remain unanswered. . . . . CBP filed…
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California’s $20 Fast Food Minimum Wage and Prices
Jeffrey Clemons (UCSD Econ) and co-authors have a new NBER working paper, “The Effects of California’s $20 Fast Food Minimum Wage on Prices.” Here is the abstract: We analyze the effect of California’s $20 fast food minimum wage (Assembly Bill 1228), enacted in September 2023 and implemented in April 2024, on consumer prices using the…
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AI and Labor Productivity: Evidence from Executives
Salomé Baslandze (Federal Reserve) and co-authors have a new NBER working paper, “Artificial Intelligence, Productivity, and the Workforce: Evidence from Corporate Executives.” Here is the abstract: We use novel data from a survey of nearly 750 corporate executives to study the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on productivity and the workforce. We document substantial heterogeneity…
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Thorndike: The Misguided Drive to Hollow Out the Income Tax
Joseph Thorndike, “Everybody’s Tax: The Misguided Drive to Hollow Out the Income Tax” (Tax Notes, March 17, 2026): Democrats are competing to exempt Americans from the income tax. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., wants to eliminate federal income taxes for workers earning up to $46,000 individually or $92,000 for married couples filing jointly, according to news…
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Using Tax Data to Compare Physician Incomes
Aidan Buehler (U. Chicago) and many coauthors have a new NBER working paper, “International Comparison of Physician Incomes.” Here is the abstract: We compare physician incomes using tax data from the United States, Canada, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Physicians are concentrated in the top percentiles of the income distribution in all four countries, especially in…
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Agostini et al: The Elasticity of Corporate Taxable Income Across Countries
Claudio Agostini and co-authors (too many to list!) have a new NBER working paper, “The Elasticity of Corporate Taxable Income Across Countries.” Here is the abstract: Do firms respond similarly to corporate tax incentives across countries? We provide globally comparable estimates of the corporate elasticity of taxable income using administrative tax return data from sixteen…
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Booker Proposes $75,000 Standard Deduction
Katie Lobosco, “No Tax on $75,000 of Income? Dem Proposes Big Standard Deduction” (Tax Notes, March 10, 2026): Sen. Cory A. Booker, D-N.J., is unveiling a new tax plan that would more than double the standard deduction, increase the child tax credit and earned income tax credit, and raise the corporate tax rate. The legislative…
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Perry Fleischer Presents “Equality of Opportunity and the Case for a Universal Child Allowance” at Illinois
Miranda Perry Fleischer (San Diego) is presenting “Equality of Opportunity and the Case for a Universal Child Allowance” at the University of Illinois Faculty Lecture Series today. The paper is also forthcoming in the Southern California Law Review and available on SSRN here. Here is the abstract: The widespread popularity of equal opportunity ideals fuels…
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The Law Firms Spearheading the Trump Tariff Refund Fight
Roy Strom, “Crowell, Sidley Spearhead Big Law’s Trump Tariff Refund Fight” (Bloomberg Law, March 2, 2026): Companies seeking refunds from President Donald Trump’s tariffs are turning to Crowell & Moring and Sidley Austin, who are among Big Law firms that have filed the most cases for clients. Companies have so far filed more than 2,000…