This Article is motivated by a puzzle. Lottery play is extremely common. Yet such play is inconsistent with standard economic theories of the consumer, which feature rationality and risk aversion. Faced with the puzzle, theorists have generally tried to save risk aversion at the expense of...

Current tax reform proposals for fighting gender discrimination misguidedly focus on who wins and who loses, suggesting that government simply tax equal-income couples equally or tax single and married individuals at the same rates. This Article provides a fresh perspective by looking at how tax...

Although legal interdisciplinarity is in the vogue, a systematic study of psychology as applied to the existing tax system has yet to emerge. This Article uses cognitive theory to explain major structural features of our tax system and argues that cognitive tricks must be considered when...

Critics of anti-discrimination policies argue that such policies are inefficient, because firms in a free-market system hire to maximize their profits and therefore discrimination only occurs to the extent it is rational. Conversely, this Article argues that gender discrimination results even...

Globalization, trade and other free market policies increase wealth. But the gains from trade are not being evenly spread among all citizens. People and politicians rage against foreigners. But it is the United States tax system, not trade, that ought to change, and wealthy Americans, not...

These are slides from a presentation to the President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform, given in Washington D.C. on May 11, 2005, updated, with additional slides, and sources at the end. The principal goal is to summarize the mechanics and analytics of a consumed or cash-flow income tax, a...

Public finance is one of the oldest sub-fields in economics and social science, behavioral economics among the youngest. While the field of behavioral finance has received much attention, behavioral public finance has received far less. Yet the absence of any simple arbitrage mechanism in the...

America does not redistribute wealth from its richest citizens. This Article sketches out the conflict between revenue-raising and redistribution that has shaped American tax policy and practice for at least a century and resulted in the sacrifice of redistributive taxes on the altar of the...

This paper examines the relationship between attitudes on potential uses of the budget surplus and gender. Survey results show relatively weak support overall for using a projected surplus to reduce taxes, with respondents much likelier to prefer increased social spending on education or social...