This paper examines the data on responsibility for climate change due to past emissions. It addresses two aspects of responsibility. First it shows that the data present a mixed picture. By some measures, developed or wealthy countries are responsible for most past emissions while on other...

We consider the design of a tax on greenhouse gas emissions for a developed country such as the United States. We consider three sets of issues: the optimal tax base, issues relating to the rate (including the use of the revenues and rate changes over time) and trade. We show that a...

Some of the most important disagreements about how aggressively to respond to the threat of climate change turn on the choice of the discount rate. A high discount rate implies relatively modest and slow reductions; a low discount rate implies immediate and dramatic action. The debate between...

This essay analyzes the tax treatment of carried interests in private equity. It argues that there are two competing analogies: service income and investment income. Standard approaches are not able to resolve which of the competing analogies is better and often fail even to recognize that there...

This paper uses the tools of optimal tax theory to examine policy toward individuals with disabilities from a welfarist perspective. Policy toward the disabled depends on how a given disability affects welfare. Under reasonable assumptions, redistribution toward individuals with disabilities is...

This paper advances ten propositions about tax shelters and tax avoidance. The first four propositions argue that tax shelters must be analyzed solely by the consequences of shelters and the responses, rejecting reasoning based on notions such as the right to tax plan, legitimate tax planning,...

This paper analyzes the consequences of the findings from research into self-reported well being or happiness for taxation. It primarily considers two findings: that happiness depends on status as well as income, and that individuals may adapt to disability, exhibiting relatively small losses in...

This paper argues that firm-level income taxes have an irreducible core of complexity, stemming from the ability to hold and sell an asset in two ways: directly and through the stock of a subsidiary. Both methods of selling must be taxed but coordinating the tax at each level, stock and assets,...

This paper considers tax expenditures from two related perspectives. First, it analyzes how the incentives on Congress to use a tax expenditure change when principal agent problems are considered. For example, it considers whether tax expenditures can reduce moral hazard or adverse selection...

A long line of literature argues that income taxes do not tax the return to risk bearing. The conclusion, if correct, has important implications for the choice between an income tax and a consumption tax and for the design of income taxes. The literature, however, on its face seems unrealistic...