A history of "supply-side economics" and the Laffer Curve published by Art Laffer's economic consulting firm in 2003. It was reviewed and edited by Laffer himself, who later reprinted it in a book published by the Laffer Center: "The Pillars of Reaganomics" (San Francisco, 2014). It is,...

This article reviews the experience of the Shoup Mission to Japan, led by Columbia University economist Carl S. Shoup, in 1949. The bulk of its recommendations were enacted and gave Japan one of the best tax systems in the world, which laid the foundation for exceptional economic growth for the...

Henry Simons was a University of Chicago economist who had enormous influence on tax policy, being a coauthor of the Haig-Simons definition of income. Although Simons was very conservative, indeed a libertarian, he has been heavily criticized by conservatives for facilitating liberal tax...

This article reviews the tax side of Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal, which was released to much fanfare on April 5, 2011. It finds that the plan has insufficient detail to allow a thorough analysis and has many unsupported assumptions that are unlikely to be true. This may explain why Ryan...

This article discusses the prospects for long-term deficit reduction given the strenuous opposition to higher taxes by influential Republican adviser Grover Norquist, who has gotten virtually every Republican in Congress to sign his no-new-taxes pledge

This paper reviews the history of tax reform from the 1960s through the 1970s. At the beginning of the era, discussion was largely dominated by liberals; by the end, conservatives had begun to take control

This articles examines newly published OECD data on taxes as a share of GDP. It argues that the percentage for the U.S. understates the true burden of government because it excludes tax expenditures. The data overstate the percentage for European countries because those countries provide health...

There have been a number of proposals lately to impose a new tax on securities or financial transactions, both as a revenue measure and a way of disciplining Wall Street speculation. This article argues that such a tax would be a bad idea and that it makes more sense to tax financial activities...