Books in the National Bureau of Economic Research Tax Policy and the Economy series

This volume presents five new studies on current topics in taxation and government spending. Natasha Sarin, Lawrence Summers, Owen Zidar, and Eric Zwick study how investors respond to taxes on capital gains, whether their incentives to invest are affected by those taxes, and whether that responsiveness has changed over time. Ethan Rouen, Suresh Nallareddy, and Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato revisit the question of whether cuts to corporate taxes increase income inequality, bringing new data and new statistical techniques to generate fresh findings. Alan Auerbach and William Gale investigate whether the advantages and disadvantages of different types of taxation are affected when interest rates stay low for long periods, as has been the case in the U.S. for many years. Nora Gordon and Sarah Reber study the distributional impact of emergency subsidies to schools made by the federal government during the recent COVID pandemic and whether those subsidies were sufficient to cover the increased school costs induced by the pandemic. Jacob Goldin, Elaine Maag, and Katherine Michelmore investigate the fiscal cost of an expansion of the U.S. child tax credit, which has been discussed extensively in policy circles recently. They take into account not only the direct expenditure on the allowance but how cost is affected by the existence of work incentives and by possible beneficial effects on childrens' adult earnings.

There is no question that the United States is facing significant fiscal challenges. This book also includes a final paper that shows how uncertainty about the restoration of US fiscal balance imposes additional efficiency costs on the economy in consumption, saving, labor supply, and portfolio decisions, and how it reduces individual welfare.

Tax policy was a central part of the recent hyperpartisan debates over the "fiscal cliff." This title features six papers by leading scholars who bring their considerable expertise to bear on issues related to education funding, labor supply, taxation, fiscal adjustments, and the overall US fiscal outlook.